Earth Defense Adventurer
by F-14 Tomcat Lover
Summary: The Earth Defense Force trained many Heroes. The word "Hero," derived from the Greek word "Hērōs," translates as 'Protector' and 'Defender.' Hērōs own root word is "Ser" or 'To Serve.' Thus the EDF never trained a single Adventurer. Now one of these Heroes has become an Adventurer, but at his core, Trooper is a Hero and goblins should fear him, as they do Adventurer, Goblin Slayer.
1. Enlistment

**Standard Disclaimer:** The herein stories belong to their respective owners who currently hold the rights to make, produce, and profit off the _**Earth Defense Force**_ franchise and the _**Goblin Slayer**_ franchise. This is also includes all associated work. Therefore, I do not own anything to be allowed to make a profit off this story. That said, I'd probably put a lot of people out of work, namely the busy bodies who can't understand you leave it to the authors and creative teams to do all the work, in one house, rather than several.

 _ **Earth Defense Adventurer**_

 _ **Chapter One**_

 _ **Enlistment**_

 **XXXX**

 **Adventurers' Guild**

 **Frontier Town**

 **Arrival Plus 16**

 **1327 hours Synchronized Time**

 **Unknown World**

 **XXXX**

"Here you both go," the hallow gold haired woman smiles as she hands the two new Adventurers their new ID Tags, "These are yours now."

"Dog Tags?" the one in armor mutters in some surprise, "Here I thought only an Industrial-based Military would be using these due to costs and complexity to make them."

The golden haired woman and the blonde girl with him are both taken by surprise at his words. Even more surprise is when he pulls out another pair made of simple tin bounded tight by a black lining from beneath his shirt and armor. Revealing that he knows their design function and purpose as his new Porcelain tag easily gets added to the pair made of tin.

"My my my," the woman smiles from behind her right hand, "I see you belong to an army that likes to keep better track of its soldiers."

"That it does," the man slips the trio of tags beneath his shirt and armor, "One for Graves Registration and the other to be left with me so I can be sorted to be sent back to my next of kin."

A chill goes down the blonde's back.

The goldnette's yellowish gold eyes dim at hearing that.

"I take it Adventurers are in high demand where you are?" she inquiries, knowing that if it wasn't for his patron's recommendation and help, he wouldn't be one of their Adventurers.

"We don't have any," the man responds tapping his armored chest plate, "Only us soldiers are permitted to carry out such hazardous missions. It is both an honor and a duty to protect all we hold deal and I follow in my older brother's footsteps as well, who was a well respected officer and commander during our last war several years ago."

Both females are surprised to hear an army actually takes up duties that are usually shirked unto Adventurers. It also surprises those in hearing distance with several quickly remarking about it.

"I see and I am very glad that your nation is well protected," the goldnette coughs into her hand before straightening up and smiling a genuine smile, "And welcome to both of you to the Adventurers Guild here in this town."

The blonde teen blushes before nodding, "Thank you miss!" she gushes out as she jumps a little, causing her club and shield stored on her back to clank together, "I'll do my best!"

The male comes to attention and salutes formally, "Thank you for accepting me, ma'am," he shifts to a parade stance, "I'll do my best to live up to your expectations and that of the Guild."

Giggling at the two's thanks, the goldnette fixes her blue blazer vest as she then holds out her hand to indicate the Quest Board to the side of the room behind the pair.

"That is our Quest Board," the woman states, "You can find Quest Requests there, but since you are both currently only Porcelain Ranked, you're limited according to just those Quests."

The blond Club Fighter nods up and down before turning back to the goldnette, "So what kind of jobs are good for getting noticed? I have to get noticed soon! Please tell me! PLEASE!"

Suddenly a hand is on Club Fighter's shoulder as she's gently pulled away from nearly vaulting over the counter in her excitement.

"Easy there turbo," the masked soldier states as he holds his free hand to his head, "Sheesh, rookies, right?" he hears the goldnette giggle at his actions and open semi-complaint, before straightening up and looking to the blonde teenage girl, "I know you're excited and all, but remember that the surest path to success, starts by remembering that you are merely starting."

"Awwwww! Come on! Trooper!" the girl whines, "I'm certain Ms. Guild Girl can tell us of how we can get promoted quickly!"

"Those who hurry, hurry to defeat," Trooper responds to Club Fighter's words, "We all must start somewhere. Only by succeeding as new Adventurers, will we gain the experience and trust to be noted. Only then will we be noted and no note will come to either of us, if no one knows of us, yes," he pacifies the teen, "But at the same time," he stops her from getting excited, "Trust is the lifeblood of a successful Adventurer as it is for both a Mercenary and a Soldier. None will trust us, unless we prove we have the experience to back up our claims. Only then will we gain trust enough to be noted."

"Then people will speak about us directly," the teen looks like she ate a sour lemon whole, "But how long will that take?" she continues to whine.

"Never if you plan to only fail by failing to plan ahead," he reaches out and begins tapping her simple leather armor, "You are a few steps ahead of many Adventurers with that armor you wear and the weapon and shield you have," then tapping his own armor chest piece, "But when it comes to acquiring more powerful equipment, first you need to learn how to master what you have now and gain experience, then, as you gain experience and get promoted, new equipment will open up with new quests as coin will thereafter be available."

The blonde Club Fighter considers Trooper's words. She doesn't like it. Her family needed some extra coin now, but if she died, then what they spent to help her begin her Adventurer's career would be lost. So she would have to slow down and think things out, a difficult thing for her.

"Trooper is right, Club Fighter," Guild Girl smiles at the teenager, "With time, you will receive both trust and fame. Only be succeeding, will you gain the coin needed to get better equipment and thus, make your name known."

The girl thought it over before nodding, "Okay. You both know more than me, at least."

"I'm a combat veteran Club Fighter," Trooper states with both crossed arms over his chest and that look of annoyance only a combat vet can muster when it comes to rooks, "I'd say I know a lot more than you and I know we'll both be learning even more as the days roll by."

The teen blushes as she learns that.

Giggling once more, Guild Girl bows slightly, "Once more, welcome to the Adventurers' Guild."

Just then, the doors open and Trooper's patron walks in…

 **XXXX**

Groaning back to consciousness, Trooper finds himself looking up at Goblin Slayer's grill pattern armored face.

"I got hit," Trooper states.

"Yes," Goblin Slayer responds before moving out of his sight even as Trooper wonders what the license plates of that Ravager Gunship are, so he can sue later.

"Damn," Trooper responds.

"You okay?" Trooper snaps to at hearing Goblin Slayer's voice.

Turning to the veteran Silver Ranked Adventurer as he stabs another goblin, to make sure it stays dead, Trooper can only respond with a pained groan as he tries to reset his brain and assess his injuries.

"You took a bad hit," Goblin Slayer states as he finishes before walking over to Trooper, "Your helmet took the full force and kept you alive."

Of course it would. It was designed to be hit by meaner stuff. Still, it is is good to know it works as advertised.

Again.

"What hit me this time?" Trooper asks, feeling more than a little confused, as he recalls what had been happening before suddenly being knocked out.

"A Hobgoblin," a silver haired woman in priestess robes, but clad with pieces of battle armor and scale mail over or under those robes, responds instead, "It caught you by surprise while you were attending to this one."

Laid out between Battle Priestess and a priest of similar appearance and dress, was the young leader of the group he had chased after.

"Damn," Trooper pulls himself over, wincing at how sore he is and his legs' refusal to get under him, but he ignores it with practice ease to crawl over, "How good and bad?"

Battle Priest answers as he and his sister continues to heal Warrior as best they can, "Considerable blood loss, an otherwise fatal overdose of poisons, and he's essentially slices of meat right now that haven't been fully and properly cut."

"In short," Battle Priestess picks up, "You're a miracle worker to save his life and make our job of keeping him alive until we can get him to a proper Healing Sanctuary a lot more easier."

"Again," Heavy Mace leans nearby, keeping watch as his violet eyes scan the darkness where the tunnel branches, "They're not coming back up for the moment Goblin Slayer," the dark elf states as he sighs in annoyance, "Pity, I've been in a foul mood all day."

"You'll have a few targets soon my friend," Battle Priest states before he and his twin sister stop their healing, for now, "That's the best we can do for him," their Ruby colored tags tingle lightly against their blue and white crystals as both siblings rise up, Battle Staves at the ready, just in case.

"Can you move?" Goblin Slayer kneels down next to Trooper.

"My legs refuse to function," Trooper replies as Battle Priest kneels down and begins running a miracle over Trooper's legs, "Can you use that?"

"Yes," Battle Priest responds, "I've increased my Miracles to eight now, so I have five more after this."

"That bad for the kid?" Trooper figures between the two Twins, if they were close, that would easily be four or five miracles for Warrior.

"I used one earlier on young Wizard," Battle Priest responds, "My sister used two of her seven on Warrior and we both assessed you were merely unconscious at the time and decided to wait and see what was working and not working."

Trooper feels his legs again and that they are returning to strength. He begins moving his toes, then his ankles. In moments, his knees up to his waist function. Despite his helmet saving his life, it is easy to assess that Trooper had been nearly paralyzed and that was a frightening thought.

"Give my praise to all the Gods and Goddesses for Healing Miracles," Trooper mutters as Battle Priest finishes and Trooper is able to slowly get back to his feet, but immediately finds himself off balance and nearly stumbling if not for both Battle Priest and Goblin Slayer catching him, "Yeah, I'll stay here with Warrior and keep watch until you come back."

"They took the final member of the group," Battle Priestess informs Trooper, "The young acolyte Priestess is safe, save for an arrow to her arm, but the last, Fighter, was captured."

Trooper's words are not fit for holy ears, but neither sibling holds it against him.

"Someone will have to stay behind and watch over the rook here," Trooper knows he can go along, but he'll be holding onto someone or the walls to move.

"Here," or he can drink the Stamina Potion that Goblin Slayer is holding out to him.

"That works," Heavy Mace chuckles at Trooper's response as the displaced soldier takes the yellow liquid and drinks it down as fast as he dares, "Still tastes like old bananas though," and because of the taste as well.

With his strength returning and his legs functioning, the team of two Rubies, a Sapphire, a Bronze, and a Silver-ranked Adventurers discuss their plan of action.

In moments, it is decided that newly minted Priestess, who had been off to the side and out of the conversation would continue with Goblin Slayer, Heavy Mace, and Trooper. The twins would remain behind and begin transporting Rookie Warrior out to the wagon where an Emerald-ranked team was on guard and already caring for Initiate Wizard. This way they could split their forces more evenly and even get Acolyte Priestess some experience while providing a familiar face for Novice Fighter.

Then Trooper remembered something.

"How many women and girls were previously kidnapped from the nearby village?" the soldier scratches his chin under his face plate, "I forgot to check."

Heavy Mace turns to him, "In your defense, you made the right call to hurry."

"Ah…" the experienced Adventurers turn to the lone rookie survivor as she shyly speaks up with a soft voice, "I believe there were somewhere around five taken."

"Goblin Slayer?" Battle Priest turns to the most senior ranked of them.

"There may be fewer than that now," Goblin Slayer tilts his head to the side as he thinks it over, he had actually read the quest details and he knew the only one who hadn't, was Trooper, "But given the time in between their attack, the request, and our arrival, there might be a chance they're all still alive."

"Reports came in that this same band might have hit another village," Battle Priestess adds uneasily.

"Then write a few off," Trooper adds with a sour tone, "I'll check, as I always do, so you can put the souls to rest, granting them that small mercy."

Goblin Slayer nods, "Then it is agreed," the other experienced Adventurers nod, "Let's begin."

"So say we all," Heavy Mace nods as he walks by the corpse of the Hobgoblin that protected this nest with Trooper trailing and recovering his Short Axe before testing it on the Hobgoblin's skull and making damn sure it got the message on the other side how lucky it was that Heavy Mace crushed its windpipe.

Together, the Attack Team went in while the Healing Team removed the badly wounded Rookie Warrior.

 **XXXX**

Minutes later, the Attack Team finds the final chamber.

At Goblin Slayer's signal, Trooper brought up his Zero-Light Night Vision Binoculars. Known as Cave Lights, the standard piece of equipment could be used anywhere, but was built in response to all the underground fighting the Earth Defense Force had to do. Helmet mounted equipment existed, but Trooper's had been wrecked before he was teleported here after a failed Ravager attempt to teleport him and many other EDF soldiers to their deaths in a most gruesome manner.

One of the newer heroes of the Second Ravager War had prevented that.

But whereas the other soldiers had been merely dropped safely, relatively speaking, back where they had been, Trooper had been too close to the weapon itself and was dumped with a load of supplies, weapons, armor, and an empty Tank into this world of fantasy.

The Tank he suspected had been called in by an Air Raider, but the Transport carrying it had been shot down. He found some bits and pieces of one. A used ejection seat told him the crew had escaped safely, he hoped. They didn't get ported here, the dried mud told him when the Transport had gone down.

The previous week before that weapon was used on him, because it rained that week and pretty heavy.

Scowling at letting his mind wander as the Cave Lights powered up, he didn't dare use full power until he found a way to recharge them, and let him see into the chamber.

His hands went up. The bioluminescent pollen he had found a while back and began collecting worked well in this darkness. All of them had just enough on the back of their gloves and hands, in Acolyte Priestess' case, to allow them to communicate unnoticed by the Goblins.

His hand signs confirmed six females, ranging in ages from 13-24. The remaining numbers of Goblins, only eight and yes, it included a Goblin Shaman as suspected and expected, and that they had prepared for them. There is also broken armor and a sword dug into the ground nearby. Bones piles indicate only two human remains thus far and the rest are animals.

Goblin Slayer had kept Acolyte Priestess near him so as to ease communications.

Thus, at his command, she chanted:

" _O Mother Earth"_

The goblins respond to that in a hurry, but the girl is surprising quick for someone so new.

" _Abounding in Mercy_

 _Grant your Sacred Light_

 _To we who are lost in the Darkness"_

And the dark world is made alight.

" _ **HOLY LIGHT!"**_

Having secured themselves against the blinding light that now filled the cavern chamber, the three experienced Adventurers struck.

Tossing a recovered goblin spear, Goblin Slayer strikes down the Goblin Shaman who leads this band as Heavy Mace, with a roaring battle cry, crosses the distance and with deft swings, sends two goblins crashing with fatally crushing force into the chamber walls.

Trooper's axe spins forward and catches one of the goblins with the women square in the face and continues on, flipping the corpse up and over, before both hit the ground, the axe cutting completely through.

Heavy Mace reaches out and snags another goblin by its throat before lifting it up and away from the women before tossing it to the ground and bringing his foot down.

Goblin Slayer rams Rookie Warrior's longsword into another goblin's face and swings, tossing it away, where it lands the goblins' cooking pot, which still has a small fire going. The still, somehow, alive goblins screams, but the angle it landed in, prevents any attempt at escape. It will be up to Trooper later to determine how it died.

Trooper kicks the severed head of Heavy Maces into the remaining two goblins, surprising and freaking them out long enough for Heavy Mace to slam one down with his weapon and Goblin Slayer to stab the last goblin down its throat and out its small body.

In a moment, Trooper has his standard issue EDF Pistol out and scanning as he checks all corners and positions.

"Clear," he states, before pulling a lamp of his pack and igniting it as Heavy Mace ignites a couple torches and tosses them to corners.

As Acolyte Priestess comes down from the tunnel into the chamber, she watches as Trooper begins to assess and treat the six females they just rescued and Heavy Mace walks over to check the sword and armor.

Goblin Slayer approaches the fallen Goblin Shaman even as Trooper speaks up.

"Hey, save that one-"

The shaman twitches suddenly as Acolyte Priestess screams a warning.

"Look out Goblin Slayer!" the small blond teen alerts Goblin Slayer.

The Goblin Shaman launches itself up at Goblin Slayer, but he kills it the moment it does with a recovered club.

"Aww man!" Trooper whines in complaint, "I wanted to interrogate that one for more data!"

"Better that it dies," Goblin Slayer responds, "The high level ones are always tough, but that's eighteen now."

As Goblin Slayer approaches a throne of bones, human bones, Heavy Mace turns to Trooper.

"How many?" the dark elf asks as he takes out his smoking pipe and fills it before lighting it with a match.

"I'd say four right now," Novice Fighter is his current inspection, "Good news, we made it in time for her," Trooper reports before turning back to the new Adventurer who is tracking his moments, "Good, good. You're paying attention. You'll be better soon, I promise. You're safe now and with time, you'll have your strength and courage back, I promise that too."

"Four what?" Acolyte Priestess tilts her head to the side.

"Pass here," Goblin Slayer responds, kicking the throne of bones apart.

"DAMMIT GOBLIN SLAYER!" Trooper complains, "Are you trying to make my work harder?!"

Identifying the number of victims in such a short time is an acquired art and skill. It requires talent and luck as well. And it would always help if Goblin Slayer didn't make it harder.

"What's that?" Acolyte Priestess is beginning to suspect this a common occurrence as Heavy Mace keeps guard, but why?

"This," and with that single word, Goblin Slayer kicks in the hidden door that had been behind the throne of bones.

Peering inside the hidden room, Acolyte Priestess gasps at the sight of four Goblin Children.

The four are huddled together, obviously terrified. They are strangely soft looking creatures. Looking so innocent and harmless compared to the goblins that had just been slain. They had none of the viciousness of their elder counterparts and all of the innocence one would expect of children in their appearance. Hidden, terrified as they were, of the two humans standing before them.

"Don't let their looks fool you," Trooper's voice is grim as he will never get used to this part and thankful for that.

It goes against everything that he is as an EDF soldier.

It got against everything that the EDF _is_.

But he's been there one too many times.

The 15 year old blond teen turns to him before Heavy Mace speaks up, an out of place girl's bracelet makes itself known with a small jingle on the simple chain looped through it and around the dark elf's neck.

"These things grow incredibly fast and vicious with each passing day," the resigned sigh from the dark elf fills the chamber next, "It's better this way."

"B-better?" Acolyte Priestess suddenly realizes something as she turns to see Goblin Slayer enter the small room with the Goblin Children and the stolen items, such as jars, boxes, and even what looks to be pieces of more armor, "You can't- No! You can't just _kill_ them!"

"We've destroyed their nest," Goblin Slayer responds calmly, "They will never forget that."

"Tch!" Trooper shakes his head in anger, dispelling the phantom screams before the real screams.

Even knowing how important it is. His data isn't all that great in finding hope. The goblins have to go.

That's what he's been able to confirm thus far.

"And the survivors of a nest learn, become smarter," raising the club high to strike, Goblin Slayer prepares to strike, "There is no reason to let them live."

"Wh-WHAT IF WERE IS A GOOD GOBLIN!" Priestess suddenly screams, tears in her eyes, as she struggles to understand what is happening before her and praying it would stop the inevitable blood shed.

Tears in one of the Goblin Children's' eyes as it looks on at its inevitable doom.

"A good goblin?" Goblin Slayer pauses, seeming tasting the concept on his tongue before continuing, "There might be if we looked hard enough."

Heavy Mace sighs as even he can feel this isn't right in a moral sense, but right in a logical sense.

"But I think," Goblin Slayer steps forward, "The only good goblins are the others that never come out of their stinking holes."

The Goblin Children scream with one holding up its hands as though to ward away Goblin Slayer's attack with a simple child's gesture.

Acolyte Priestess collapses to her knees as she watches and hears the brutal deaths of children. She vomits as she her beret falls away. To her credit, she stays up right, if hunched, as she brings her hands together in prayer. Tears flowing freely from her closed eyes.

"That's twenty-two," Goblin Slayer steps out of the hidden room, covered in blood and his weapon leaking it.

Trooper, for once, can't take it anymore.

He scrambles to the side and pulls his face plate up. The wet sound of his vomiting fills the chamber. The follow up dry heaving doesn't help much as the smell of his last meal and the old banana tasting Stimulate adds to the already foul odors of the chamber.

"You alright?" Goblin Slayer stands near his ally as Trooper continues to dry heave for a few more minutes before recovering.

"Gawds!" Trooper cleans his mouth and chin before replacing his face plate, "I cannot keep this up! I trained to stop genocide, not participate in it! How can it be like this?! HOW!?"

Knowing his colleague is just angry at this disgusting mess, Heavy Mace knows he's just reacting to the stress.

It was one thing to kill goblins.

It was another to kill Goblin Children.

But as disgusting as it sounds, there has been no way to change things. The last attempt at capturing some Goblin Children had ended with Trooper having to kill them all. That may be part of his issues right there. It was so…

Bloody and violent.

"I do not know," Goblin Slayer responds simply before placing a hand on Trooper's shoulder, "But you show your people's pride with that outburst. Never lose it."

Breathing heavily, Trooper flexes his fingers. He's wound up. Partially frightened. He needs to calm down.

With a forcible breath, Trooper gets his breathing under control. Then he relaxes, before releasing a heavy breath. With it, went all of his tension.

"I got work to do," Trooper responds as Goblin Slayer withdraws his hand, "But please! Next time, just push it out of the way, so I don't have to find every piece."

Walking past Goblin Slayer, who merely nods, Trooper goes about to collect the details of what has been going on. How many dead there are. How much destruction this nest of goblins had caused.

Just another day slaying goblins and picking up the pieces.

 **XXXX**

 **Road to Frontier Town**

 **Arrival Plus 3 years, 5 months, 2 days**

 **87th Day of Spring Synchronized Date**

 **1433 hours Synchronized Time**

 **Adventure World**

 **XXXX**

The group of Emerald-ranked Adventurers, two dwarves and two rhea, guide the wagon and two horses as the exhausted band of Adventurers returns the Frontier Town.

In the wagon, both Rookie Warrior and Initiate Wizard are laid out side by side. Between them, with barely enough room to work, are both of the Ruby-ranked twins, Battle Priest and Battle Priestess. Towards the back of the wagon, Novice Fighter and Acolyte Priestess sit together, the former now clad in a simple brown cloak with the younger girl holding her close, letting her rest peacefully as they head back to town.

Across from the two girls is Heavy Mace, sound asleep with his helmet tilted to keep him safe from a surprise attack. He sleeps sitting up, the woman's bracelet in between his closed hands.

On the end of the wagon, both Trooper and Goblin Slayer sit. Their legs hang over the edge as they discuss the details of their reports to the Guild. The two men no longer at odds over what happened in the goblin nest.

It was an inevitable spill over that had been waiting to boil to the top.

Fortunately, Trooper is well trained and despite all appearances, Goblin Slayer is only emotionally and socially stunted. He can see and realize when things have gotten rough on others. He can see the whirlwind of emotions. He just pushes through it all. Knowing when to approach and when to leave well enough alone.

"From what I could gather, at least nine males dead, between the ages of 17-34 years, only one tag and its likely that missing scout we've been hearing about," Trooper goes over his findings for the report, "The others were likely a waylaid caravan, evidence suggests three females in it, one of 19 years and two others of 23 years and 38 years I figure from what I found."

"What rank was the missing scout again?" Goblin Slayer inquires suddenly.

Trooper checks his notes and pulls out the tag, "Steel-ranked. That male Rhea Scout. You know, the one that still owed Spearman money from that drinking contest three months back."

"Don't recall," Goblin Slayer.

"He asked you about a good weapon for cavern exploring a week later," Trooper supplied.

"Oh yes, him," Goblin Slayer now remembers, "He went with an axe if I'm correct."

"That he did," Trooper confirms, "Broke in battle on a quest a month and half ago and thought to get a new one."

"Is that so?" Goblin Slayer turns his head to Trooper as the man racks his brain for the details.

"Yeah," Trooper nods, "Ran into a rogue magic user. It was either his life or his weapon. You can guess which choice he made. Spearman took a team with Witch and they dealt with the troublemaker. Real piece of work that one, half-male and half-female too. I never caught the details because we had to book it to that one infestation, the one with 72 goblins in an old temple."

"I recall that one," Goblin Slayer remembers, "Heavy Mace had joined use for that one and he let out a lot of anger that day."

"It was a slaughter indeed, but current reports," Trooper steers the conversation back on track.

"Right," Goblin Slayer confirms as they speak some more before reaching a concerning element, "Are you sure?"

"Evidence points like that," Trooper nods, "The caravan is likely that missing noble and his wife and two of his daughters, but that aside, I don't think this group hit that other village, which will be odd."

"Goblins don't overlap their nests and territories," Goblin Slayer rubs at his chin beneath his helmet.

"Frightfully territorial when it strikes them," Trooper confirms, "Which is pretty much who's stronger and all the time. I'm going to put in a request for a scouting team to poke around. They would be near a merchant route and I'm certain the Merchant Guild will front the money for both the scouting party and the elimination, supposing if there is actually a nest and not some outcasts kidnapping some females in that area."

"How many were taken?" Goblin Slayer inquires.

"Hey, twins! How many from that other village got nabbed?" Trooper calls to the pair of battle healers.

"About seven when the original report came in," Battle Priest confirms.

"Well, damn," that would be a problem, "We only had to rescue five plus one and we ran a chance of 50 or more in the next couple of weeks."

"Put in that request when we return," Goblin Slayer could be told that he is frowning behind his helmet, "We need to know so we can slay them."

"Right," Trooper sighs, "What a fine kettle of fish."

"E-excuse me?" the soft voice of the young priestess reaches their ears as both men turn to her, "Ah…" she ends up stalling as both observe her, "What will happen now?" before either male could respond, "I mean to Fighter, Wizard, and Warrior and myself?" she tilts her head, her beret not tumbling off as she had fixed the band earlier to keep it on right.

Trooper shrugs as he turns back out to look behind them at a merchant's wagon following them, "Warrior will likely be at the Guild's Healing Temple for the next few weeks, but after that, it's hard to say," Trooper realizes belatedly that he's still covered in Warrior's blood too, "Gotta wash this as soon as I can," he mutters a bit too loud, before continuing, "As for Wizard, the same, though likely she'll be out sooner and good news is, that if she wants kids in the future, she can, not only did the knife miss, but I was also able to keep the poison away as well. Damn close still, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades."

Battle Priest snorts with the two dwarves at Trooper's words and know that his 'grenades' have some range on them.

Battle Priestess and the two rhea only roll their eyes.

"As for Fighter, she'll likely go there as well," Trooper shrugs his shoulders, "They have a good system in place and she's salvageable as it stands?"

"W-what?!" the young priestess' eyes widen at the rather callous choice of words.

Turning his head, Trooper shrugs indifferently, not particularly caring about his words.

"They can help her there," Trooper waves to the wagon behind them and the driver waves back, "Salvage her pride, strength, and character. They can get her legs back beneath her, but after that, it's all up to her to put everything back in order."

Battle Priestess speaks up, "Trooper is a war veteran from his home and doesn't use those terms lightly," the younger female healer turns to the older battle healer, "He means well, but he's seen much both at home and since he arrived here when a corrupted teleport spell was interrupted."

The young blond's eyes are wide and her mouth forms an 'o' shape.

"It's harsh, I know," Trooper admits with a sigh, "But I got reassigned from combat when my unit had nearly been wiped out early in the war," putting his hands back behind him and accidentally brushing Fighter's leg, causing her to jerk awake, "I was transferred to assist a medical unit as a support element, but was drafted into assisting doctors to save as many lives as possible. Meatball surgery is what we call it," Trooper sighs he leans back to stare up at the clear blue sky, "When the bodies of screaming people were brought in, they looked like popular food dishes back home. Our job was to patch them up long enough for specialized doctors to treat the worst of them and the ones who weren't the worst off, we had to treat ourselves and get them pushed back to the line if we could."

"I-I…" the young teen just can't believe it.

"Ye-yup," Trooper states, "Trained for war, not healing and I ended up getting a very hands on, accelerated education in medicine," Trooper sighs aloud, "Including offers to go to prestigious academies after the war to refine and evolve my knowledge into that of a proper doctor, but my unit was reformed with nearly ninety of us being at the center and so back to war we went and happily away from deciding who lived and died in those medical units."

"You will need a place," Goblin Slayer suddenly speaks up, "Do you have room?"

The teenage girl blinks and then shakes her head.

Trooper shrugs indifferently, "My little fort I made out of a wrecked shell of a building and some foundations?" shrugging again at Goblin Slayer's nod, "Plenty really. With their situation, they can crash at my place until they recover, though remember to pick up after yourselves. It will save you some coin until you can get a nice build up of some."

"Th-thank you," the young priestess then yawns quite cutely, before settling in for a nap, Fighter going back to sleep as well.

"You are going to check them later, right?" Heavy Mace speaks up from where he woke after Fighter kicked him.

"Frag a Hect," Trooper grumbles, knowing that the female martial artist might be booted out sooner than she oughta, simply because of some dumb reason or another.

Mostly because there is only so much coin going to and only so much space at the Guild's Healing Temple.

"Whatever, I'll give them both physicals later," Trooper yawns himself and turns back to Goblin Slayer, both working out the reports as the Silver-ranked Goblin Slayer speaks about when the Sapphire-ranked Trooper had been knocked out.

Heavy Mace settles back in for his nap and the twins keep the two still unconscious pair of rookies alive until they can reach the temple and get more sophisticated treatment.

The four Emeralds keep the horses, and thus the wagon, on track for town.

 **XXXX**

Guild Girl looks up as the door opens and in walks Goblin Slayer, Heavy Mace, Trooper, and the young new Priestess.

The four enter with heavy steps and weighted bodies. The hallow gold haired woman fears the worst until she notices only a single Steel tag get placed before her. The bad scratches on it, providing mute testimony to its owner's fate. A Sapphire tag with a crack joins it a moment later.

"Sorry Guild Girl, but can you get me a new one again?" Trooper holds vertically one hand up in front of his face as he leans down and tries to look innocent.

With a sigh, the golden eyed woman shakes her head, "You're lucky we expect this on occasion," then she smiles sweetly, "Though try not to set records."

Rising back up with a soft laugh, "Tell it to the Hobgoblin that managed to partially paralyze me with a surprise attack."

The woman flinches at hearing that. Though thankfully, it's clear that one of the healers had prevented lasting harm. That's always good news, especially for Trooper.

"Hey Guild Girl!" Spearman suddenly walks over, "Any word on him? The guy owes me some money and I'll like to collect."

"Chances are," Trooper suddenly spoke up instead, tapping the Steel Tag, "You're buying the next round."

"Damnit!" Spearman growls at the loss of yet another member of their town's Adventure Guild, "His remains?"

Trooper shakes his head before removing his finger from the tag, "Too many bones. We had to torch and bomb the place after the twins gave their prayers."

"Tch!" Spearman pushes off and heads back to the others in the bar area and to order that drink for their departed comrade.

It's the least he can do for the man.

"I hate turning these things in," Trooper had done that way too much back home.

Guild Girl smiles softly, but thankfully, it is only one tag and not five.

Though that begs the question of how he died in the first place.

"Anyways," Trooper turns to Goblin Slayer who is greeted by a happy Guild Girl causing Trooper to chuckle instead at how oblivious Goblin Slayer can be sometimes.

The eternally armored goblin killer steps forward and gives a verbal report. He also hands over several initial written reports. The detail reports will come shortly.

At the end, Guild Girl showed herself to be both relieved and sadden.

Relieved that the goblins were dead, the kidnapped girls and women rescued, and all of the rookies had survived.

But at the same time, she was sadden. At least one caravan was waylaid and all killed. One of their missing Adventurers had also been lost. Of the four rookies, one was hovering between life and death, a second was badly wounded, the third had been, briefly 'captured' by the goblins, and the fourth had sustain a wound to her left arm and been terrorized by all that happened around her.

On top of that, Trooper needed to get himself examined as well. Just to make sure he would keep use of his legs. There is no telling right now how badly hurt he had been.

Which also lead to his request for a scouting party to confirm if there were more goblins running around that area from a separate group. They would have to send a scouting team, because the Guild's reputation would otherwise suffer. People would think they didn't get all the goblins and that would be bad. They needed the people's trust after all to do anything.

"I'll make arrangements immediately to send out scouts," Guild Girl responds at the end of the reports and thinking the situation over, "Trooper, please take the new Priestess and see yourself to the Guild's Medical Ward to get yourself and her assessed."

Saluting, "At once ma'am," and Trooper turns on his heel and quick steps to collect the young girl and get her and himself examined.

"Goblin Slayer I need those detail reports as soon as possible."

"They'll be in before the evening," the eternally armored man responds at once.

"Heavy Mace, you too," Guild Girl states as she summons a runner to go and check up on the three other rookie Adventurers.

"No problem," Heavy Mace shrugs indifferently before adding, "But I'll need to leave soon. The Enclave needs to know about the upsurge of goblin activity in this area and they're recalling as many of us as possible for reasons unknown to me."

"Understood," Guild Girl sighs, "Both of the twins that were with are also leaving soon, same with the Emerald-ranked Adventurers that accompanied you as well."

"Fun time to be alive," the dark elf states before he heads off with Goblin Slayer to write those reports.

Fortunately, the ride was long enough that they had already gotten most of the work already done. Trooper was a zealot to getting the detailed reports done as soon as was possible. He wrote differently from others and said that he had been instructed to write what were called After Action Reports or AARs for short. His unit had gone from Regular Line to Elite Line and that meant they got used for 'Special Missions' and had to write more complex reports.

Otherwise, why would an Infantryman like him, know how to operate something like a an EDF Tank.

Once the two went over to finish filling out the detail reports, Guild Girl set herself about preparing a scouting mission. Her superiors would be quick to back the quest and even offer incentive. It would have to be made by their best too. So likely Ruby or Bronze. That way, they can be sure of the mission success, unless a Silver takes it and only something totally unexpected would cause the scout mission to fail.

At least all of the rookies were brought back, for better or worse.

 **XXXX**

 **Adventurers' Guild Office**

 **Front Area**

 **Arrival Plus 3 years, 5 months, 5 days**

 **90th Day of Spring Synchronized Date**

 **1241 hours Synchronized Time**

 **Adventure World**

 **XXXX**

Trooper found himself going over the reports about the recent goblin attacks. Things were as bad as they could be. Some of the new crop of rookies had the stuff to make something of themselves. So his and Goblin Slayer's workload had been cut in half by them.

For now.

Most of these rookies were not rawhides freshly joined. Some had, at minimal, six to eight quests under their belts. A few had come in, knowing the dangers and expecting to find unexpected worse things than they could ever imagine. So they had prepared with the right mindset and been careful about their limited amount of coins and even more limited amount of supplies.

Overall, Warrior's Rookie Group had been an anomaly when stood against the others.

Lucky for them, Trooper had arrived in the nick of time to buy more and save their lives.

Though, after going over the reports and details, Trooper could honestly say, that Goblin Slayer would have arrived in time to save at least one. His money on the newly minted acolyte priestess that everyone's taken to calling just Priestess. She's currently, really, their only rookie Priestess right now.

Youngest member of her four group, she's just 15 years old. Not particularly tall, Goblin Slayer stood near Trooper's height, even with helmets added in. Trooper wasn't short either, a good 6 foot 3 inches minus boots and helmet. Goblin Slayer stood somewhat under that at somewhere around 6 foot solid.

Though it was hard to tell sometimes.

The young Priestess, from what he had seen, was likely a mere 5 foot, 6 inches at best. Including her boots and beret. So she likely barely stood over 5 foot, 4 inches.

She was also not petite. She would eventually grow quite well in the bust and have an almost hourglass like figure. If not that, then a soda bottle figure.

Trooper shook his head, remembering that he shouldn't be analyzing her like that. She's still in the process of learning if she can be an adventurer or not. Perhaps he's been examining way too many victims of goblin attacks and kidnappings.

Not that Goblin Slayer or Guild Girl complain, though the latter does show concern for his mental health.

' _If she quits, she'll likely be just fine,'_ Trooper thinks looking over at Goblin Slayer, ' _Of course, the two had had a chat and if I'm guessing right, Goblin Slayer expects her to join him for his next quest.'_

Trooper had decided not to go after goblins today. He needed money to finish the roof of Fort Fantasy, his small base of operations. He had the materials, but he was no carpenter. He'll need to hire someone professional.

That and he was being asked again to take on more casualties again.

' _I have space for only fourteen and they want to shove nearly_ fifty _on me!'_ the man mentally grouses.

Things had been picking up pretty badly. So Heavy Swordsman and Lady Knight had asked for his assistance. The quest they got had a very minute chance of goblins in it, not enough to really interest Goblin Slayer and understandable. He tended to defend small villages, something that Heavy Swordsman had always been repeatedly thankful since Goblin Slayer saved his own home village.

But the chance run in is so low, that Trooper had agreed to take the mission. The pay is excellent, the mission simply straightforward, and he'd get valuable data for building his intelligence files. All in all, a good mission to run.

Suddenly, one of the Guild's front doors open and Trooper looks over.

There she is, Priestess.

Something to be noted for Priestesses like her, and Priests as well, is the tendency to have blond hair and blue eyes to go with their white and blue robes. The fronts provided a strip of solid blue, while the rest of the outfit was pure white with either blue or yellow piping and lining. Black and brown belts and straps often finished off the appearance with black shirts and pants under the white and blue robes.

In Priestess' case, she were black shorts, thigh highs, and a shirt.

The teenage girl walks over to where Guild Girl and Goblin Slayer are discussing details.

"H-hello!" the girl begins, gaining both's attention, "Um… I bought some chainmail," here, the girl steps back just enough to pull up part of her robes to reveal the hem of a chainmail skirt, "Just like you told me," she releases her robes to let it cover the simple armor back up.

"Trooper," turning his own attention to Heavy Swordsman, "Are you ready?"

With a simple nod, Trooper pushes off his stool and stands up, "Need the coin to finish the roof and expand the medical section."

"They're pushing more wounded onto you again?" Lady Knight frowns at that.

"Yes," Trooper nods and the woman's face shows her displeasure, "I'm trying to keep them from dumping more than twenty on me, but it's an uphill battle."

"They need to expand our Healing Temple instead," Heavy Swordsman states, but chooses to ignore it for now, "How are you equipped for today?"

Patting his large pack, a buckler shield, and a two handed short-handled warhammer, Trooper is ready for the week long quest.

He even brought some more supplies just in case it goes longer than a week.

"Then let's go," and with that said, their group gathers together, holds a last minute discussion/meeting, and then heads out to the wagons that will ferry them and their supplies to where they need to go.

Trooper looks back to see Goblin Slayer and Priestess heading out on their own quest as well.

' _It's an all too common tale._

 _A village is attacked by goblins._

 _Some maidens are kidnapped._

 _Some newbie Adventurers decide they are going to get rid of those goblins for their first quest._

 _But the goblins prove to be too much, and the whole party is slaughtered._

 _Or maybe just one makes it out and saves the girls too._

 _During their captivity, those girls were forced to serve the goblins' needs and in despair, they enter the Temple._

 _That lone surviving Adventurer slowly slips away from the world and never leaves home again._

 _There's nothing exceptional about this story._

 _It happens every day._

 _Or so I think._

 _But I'm not sure._

 _Do these life shattering events happen all the time?_

 _And if they do, can I, knowing first hand, maintain my faith in the Earth Mother?_

 _I don't know._

 _But that's exactly why…_

 _...I'm going to continue as an Adventurer._

 _At least for a while._

 _Watching as others, who had gone through worse, show a strength to continue on._

 _That for every story of sorrow, there is one of happiness and hope._

 _That, there is a strength to be found in others._

 _Others with the courage to give their all no matter what and see it through to completion._

 _And I will follow them._

 _To learn._

 _To grow._

 _To see what lays out there, beyond my sight…_

 _...Beyond my grasp so that I may take hold of it with both hands and see it for myself."_

Diary Entry of Priestess

 **XXXX**

 **A/N:**

 **Okay, new story folks.**

 **A crossover between the new series** _Goblin Slayer_ **and the rather not well known Earth Defense Force video games, specially** _Earth Defense Force 4.1: Shadows of Despair_ **.**

 **It has been popular to rescue Priestess' first group. Or at least members of it besides Priestess. In this case, they all survived, but what will happen, will be revealed with time.**

 **As for Earth Defense Force Trooper, he's a regular EDF Infantryman. In short, he's one of those NPC grunts that is always led by the red helmet marked EDF Officer in the field. Essentially, the guys there that get pretty much** _ **all**_ **the time.**

 **Yeah. They're Red Shirts. Or White Armors (Star Wars reference, but same thing). They are there to be killed, though they can also survive. You'd be surprised how often I've found them alive in 4.1 now.**

 **I know I was!**

 **Anyways, Trooper's history is largely put up front for you all. Specifics about him, like anything else is hidden away. Like hair and eye color. Got to love how** _Goblin Slayer_ **makes that easy.**

 **Things will be happening.**

 **And for those waiting on other stories… I've got a few being worked on right now. Unfortunately, compared to this, those require a lot more effort to be put in. My work is at a high tempo right now. At one job I have to make up for the slack of two others and we can't find replacements for them, so my boss there is stuck.**

 **My second job is also in high demand right now.**

 **I need to get out of the food business.**

 **Anyways, I hope you enjoy this story.**

 **Sincerely**

 **F-14 Tomcat Lover**

' **The Big Cat's around, so Bee Eaters better start running!'**


	2. Not Easy

_**Earth Defense Adventurer**_

 _ **Chapter Two**_

 _ **Easy Day was Yesterday**_

 **XXXX**

 **Fort Fantasy**

 **Living Quarters**

 **Arrival Plus 3 years, 6 months, 11 days**

 **127th Day of Spring Synchronized Date**

 **0841 hours Synchronized Time**

 **Adventure World**

 **XXXX**

Trooper yawns as he makes his way to the 'Mess Hall' of his little fort, Fort Fantasy.

The fort wasn't even a simple barracks prior to his occupation of it. Whatever it was, it was civilian in nature. Not that one could really tell from looking at it.

It had been the wrecked, burned out shell of a building, some foundations, the remains of some walls, and what he thinks might have been a shed of some kind at one point. Maybe not. For all he knew, this was once a village with a small manor in it. The same for the locals.

No one can remember.

It's been destroyed that long.

It didn't matter what it used to be.

It is now Fort Fantasy and as ramshackle as any shanty fort can get.

The low walls had been somewhat rebuilt and now form part of an outer barricade. This includes a ditch line which had been dug so as to stop simple siege engines, mounted attack, and goblins. Any attempt to use the low wall for foot soldiers would also be a bad idea, as the ditch was too deep to allow effective range attacks, could be flooded, and the walls were set too far back to be of any cover from the edge of the ditch. They were also topped with simple wooden spikes to help repel any Infantry trying to climb over them and were too weak to get a decent grapple line on.

Of course, part of the wall's charm, is the fact that there is more than 500 meters of open killing field in a 360 degree sphere. A few clumps of trees here and there and some wooden fencing and the nearby road were the only things in that clearing. Most notably, the wooden fencing, some of which belonged to the nearby Dairy Farm and others to other farmers and ranchers in the area, had been worked into being part of the defenses.

Since the wooden fencing had to keep in animals like horses, cows, and bulls, they had been strongly built and because of how long they had to stand without periodic maintenance, built tough to survive the elements.

As such, even though they wouldn't stop any form of attack, except mounted, they would take time to break down and clear, leaving any attacker exposed to defensive fire.

While he had been knocking down some of the oldest trees, nearing the end of their lives or dead and needing clearing, Trooper had come across what appeared to be an old shrine facility.

It was certainly no complex or temple. That is for sure. Simple living arrangements, an old tower that had somehow become buried and become a hill, an altar of some kind, and a small inn and stable, all built into a single building with a medium high wall around it.

Digging it out hadn't been hard. One of the local Temples had paid for the work to be done to recover any artefacts. Sadly, there had been nothing but rubble, but that told the story it's own story.

Researchers had poured over the debris and then rebuilt with painstaking precision, many of the items that were found.

Then, of course, the subfloor had been found.

In it, was evidence of who had originally owned the shrine. The Temple of Law.

It had actually been one of their old warrior sect's forward base of operations. A small frontier guard station and shrine. Nothing special, but it had kept peace once, provided guidance to its faithful, and now it was just a hollowed out shell like the main building of Fort Fantasy.

As such, the Temple of Law had transferred the shrine outpost to him for practically no cost.

It was close to the main building, so it would be revamped. It now doubled as both storage for non-essentials, a parking area, and the medical ward.

Funny thing about it, it was not even 10 meters from the main building. As such, it had a covered, raised walkway connected to it made of stone with a wooden top and protected side panels. The old walls also encompassed it to a degree and new additions added to it.

Goblin killing had long proven to be a vital business and pays an astounding amount of money.

Going on other quests and scavenging for resources also helped.

Even then, it would have been a lifetime project to build it up. Especially for one man, but with Goblin Slayer's help, he had managed to get a bit ahead. Though even then, he knew the fort would never be completed.

As such, he offers space to rookie Adventurers who are struggling, to the Guild for the occasional use, he gets the odd party every now and then, and then there's the local Temples, especially the Healing Temples, that need space for overflow.

As such, he does see some coin coming in.

Overall, the size and footprint of Fort Fantasy is small. Barely over 30 meters long and 27 meters wide with a non-uniformed arrangement. The main walls are barely a wooden barricade with stone lining. The gate is a simple affair of two doors and a barricade that can be dropped in.

There's a small pond, which fills every spring and now has a means to let out its overflow. A well also exists, though it tends to flood in the two rainy seasons. During the Summer, he paid a group of dwarfs to check that out and they said it had other exits once, but now it backs up, fortunately, it didn't include any bad water. So it would be fine all the time.

Trooper still follows through on EDF practices to make the water definitely safe to drink.

The EDF soldiers suddenly stops and unlatches a door and carefully and quietly opens it, prepared for anything.

But there, in her bed, Fighter is still asleep. Likely from the sedative he had given her the previous night. The teenage girl could get restless, to understate it, because of what happened to her. So Trooper had taken to drugging her with a light sedative to make sure she sleeps well.

Honestly, she should have been transferred to a better prepared and supported and _staffed_ Healing Temple specializing in getting her back on her feet. Instead, she had been dumped on him to take care of and he was getting annoyed with it.

Fighter had fight in her sometimes.

All of the wrong kind.

Her first physical had started well and despite a female Healer's presence and that of Priestess, Fighter had freaked out without him even touching her midway through it.

His best guess was that something had set her off. Something that they hadn't realized. Still didn't know what that was either. And the end result was that Fighter had a tendency to suddenly panic without notice and her ability to sleep had been badly disrupted to the point he is lucky if she just falls asleep and stays asleep for a single night out of the local eight day week.

Still, he quietly slips in and locks the door behind him as she gently steps up to the young girl as she sleeps.

Fighter slept in the nude. Most people here did. Not Trooper, though. He slept with a pair of pants on and a shirt too.

Despite what had happened, Fighter had no trouble sleeping as she is.

Gently reaching down, Trooper moves the blankets allow him to begin checking the martial artist's pulse and as he moves his other hand over her face slow and easy to check her breathing. Both means reveal to Trooper that she is waking up slowly, but the sedative had worn off long ago to let her have a night of natural sleep.

While she'll be awake in a few moments, Trooper makes no move to depart, but doesn't worry too. Yet.

The girl is strong, plenty so that even Trooper had been pressed and with her taught skills honed by years of training and repetition. So Trooper had gotten her a small puppy as part of her therapy and the said small pup had raised his head as soon as Trooper had started fiddling with the door.

The puppy just watched him for a few moments and then laid his head back down.

Of course, saying he got her the puppy is a very clear case of outright lying.

She had ran off for two days and three nights. Trooper found her on the third day, having hidden in a neighboring farmer's dog kennel. There, she had become attached to the puppy and vice versa and the farmer hadn't minded one bit about letting her take the puppy home with her. He knew who she was and knew that having a little pup around would help her greatly.

Like having a living teddy bear that acts as a real agent of security at night.

The dark haired teen's eyes began to flicker as Trooper waits patiently. She tosses and turns a bit, which he had gathered a week in, is normal for her. He tosses and turns on occasion and concludes it to be much the same for her.

A desire to sleep and yet a yearning to awaken.

So when her eyes flicker open and readjust to the morning light, she turns her head as she senses Trooper's presence.

"Hmm? Warrior?" she mutters mistaking Trooper for her wounded friend, but as a slight glare from the rising sun strikes Trooper's face, casting an orangey glow to him and obscuring his true appearance, she suddenly seizes up and her eyes go wide and become dialated.

The puppy's sudden bark and then biting at her hand, alerts both to the fact that she had seized the animal by his tail and the sudden response causes her to flinch and as Trooper moved to avoid being punched, just in case, she regains her composure promptly as the illusion dies instantly.

"Oh-kay," Trooper says as he rubs his eyes, that glare was painful, "So certain light casting," Trooper retakes his seat, thinking it over, ' _The goblins may have tortured her with a torch at some point. The question is why and how? Unless it was the Shaman throwing its magic around, but would a Shaman be that reckless.'_

Trooper decides that he should immediately speak with Goblin Slayer on the matter and then visit the other five captives when possible to see if that theory is correct.

In the meantime, though…

"We've made unexpected progress today Fighter," Trooper takes her bitten hand into his own and checks the bitemarks over and finds the puppy had more nipped than bit, "and I'm certain you owe the puppy a significant portion of your time today to apologize for grabbing his tail like that."

The smile on his face, though, shows he's happy for her. They've learned a trigger. Now they can start to find the rest more easily.

"Tru-per?" Fighter blinks again, her obsidian blue eyes taking in the man as he's unarmored for once.

Dressed in a simple pair of pants and a shirt, Trooper looks like someone who isn't dressed for the day. She's seen him out of his armor before, but never like this.

"Overslept by an hour, but Goblin Slayer had wandered over and checked the fort's perimeter for me," he releases her hand, satisfied there isn't any damage, "I was tired yesterday when I put you to bed with Priestess' help."

"Thank… you…" the once vibrant way she once spoke is now long gone. Perhaps only for now. Instead, her sentences tend to be a word or two and broken in structure. No longer stringed together like anyone who has long learned language. It will be time before she talks normally again.

As she sits up, her blankets fall away, leaving her exposed.

Trooper doesn't even notice, gently taking hold of her head to get her to face him and let him check her this morning.

It's a daily routine for the two of them. He gives her a daily check up every morning he can. Looking for signs of stress, fatigue, and other issues including physical ailments. It is not something he ever expected to be doing.

And he wishes that she was placed into a more qualified facility.

"Okay," Trooper nods, the miracle of finding a single thing or having an episode interrupted as it starts, "I'll let you wander around today on your own, but no going behind the posted line, understand?"

"Yes…" the dark haired girl nods.

"No touching anything sharp and pointy either," Trooper states plainly and the girl nods again.

"Yes…"

They go through the checklist of what she can and can't do, touch, and where she can and can't go.

In the end, Trooper sends her on her way to the baths. The girl gets up, not particularly caring that Trooper is there and simply collects her bathing items and the puppy and heads out to take her bath. Not once stopping to pick up any clothing, not like she has much for clothing right now.

Trooper sighs as he leaves shortly after her, giving her time to get to the baths first, not even looking the door behind him, not it is needed, but making sure it is closed.

He yawns as he wanders down the halls again.

Trooper knows that kind of crap ain't something he should be handling. At least Fighter has nothing in her room that she can use to hurt herself. Even her clothes are simple things that she can put on and go about her day. A headache for sure for the older male, but hopefully, some day, she'll have a sense of modesty again and no suicidal thoughts.

He suddenly hears the puppy yipping happily and he shakes his head as he walks by the baths, stopping to check in on Priestess for a moment and sees the girl actually stepping out bleary eyed out of her room and on her way to the baths he just passed.

After a short greeting, he continues on his way as the girl heads to bathe.

"I wonder if she realizes she was flashing me the whole damn time?" Trooper sighs as the girl was wearing a few sizes too small shirt.

Why him?

She's supposed to be Goblin Slayer's problem, not his!

Oh well.

He'd better be gone before she realizes he saw her underwear.

Yawning again, Trooper really hates this world's 28 hour cycle with eight day weeks and having 14 months with 411 days can be really annoying.

Trooper enters the 'Mess Hall' at that moment.

The sleeping quarters are really nothing more than a few wooden walls reinforced with sandbags of all things. The roofs are barely covered over and are as much cloth as they are wood. Furniture, including the beds could range from piles of hay placed on raised boards to simple hammocks strung from the walls to some mattresses that Goblin Slayer had managed to find for Fort Fantasy.

How? Trooper didn't ask. Chances were, a village didn't need them anymore. Along with other items the two had scavenged together and separately since Trooper joined up as an Adventurer.

As for facilities for the Living Quarters…

The baths attached to them are one functioning bath, used by everyone present, and one incomplete bath without anything added to it. It's just got a few layouts and a couple of holes. The water at least runs into the functioning one and is heated as well, a little trick Trooper had learned during the downtime between the battles back on Earth.

The Toilets had sinks with running water and the Toilets were also able to be flushed. Again, simple tricks and knowledge. Some of the major cities, like Water Town, had these developments. Though they were somewhat rarer out here in the middle of nowhere.

There are eight functioning latrines each with at least one working Toilet and Sink. One of them even has two functioning Sinks and a door that leads into the actual building. The others are uncovered and lead outside only for both entrance and exit.

Largely because the walls haven't been installed or rebuilt, depending on case.

The Washing Area for clothing is essentially next to the parked E551 Gigantus, which is still being used as an anchor for the clothes lines and even the barrel is used to hang laundry out to dry!

The Common Room is essentially the only area not sectioned. Which is much of the main 'keep' of the fort. Some improvised chairs, benches, tables, and whatever else was available fills it in. The furniture is much the same as with the rooms, whatever could be made up to be of use, including a couple of improvised desks and bookshelves.

The only walls were stacks of logs and sandbags placed to create a barricade to both the elements and enemies. There were still sections of the old stone building, those provided the real strength, but not much else. Everything else had been improvised or is still a work in progress.

The Mess Hall is little more than an open kitchen area made of stone to prevent fires, some wooden boards, old crates turned into chairs and covered over, whatever branches tied together and laid across some more boards that Trooper found wherever he could.

The walls are little more than triple layer sandbags with wood sheets between them. The layering doesn't work as well as expected in the Winter and Summer is barely tolerable. The windows are the only thing that keep it cool in the Summer and those are little more than packed sandbags themselves with a bit of cloth over both sides.

Upside, at least it keeps the rain and snow out. The feet stay dry as there is planking down, over the old stone floor, to stand on. It is covered and shielded so as to keep one out of the elements directly. During Winter simple stoves keep the place at least somewhat warm and in Summer, there's always been enough water to have a simplified mister spray throughout the Mess Hall.

Overall, Fort Fantasy is a lot like a temporary FOB.

Bordering on being a camp than a fort, it at least kept everyone dried and alive despite its shortcomings.

"Good morning Trooper!" a cheery voice surprises Trooper as he enters the Mess Hall.

"Oh! Red Scout, what are you doing?" Trooper sees the young, but experienced rhea scout cooking breakfast, "If I'm not mistaken, I'm on KP today?"

"You aren't mistaken," the red headed, red theme rhea responds, "But I know you got back late and had a tough request to fill out, right?"

Her red eyes gleam with mischievousness and Trooper knows, she's just trying to score points so as not to have too much to do and to get one of the actual beds. Still, she is an excellent cook and a welcomed source of energy, when she's honest. Still, he'll let her do all the extra work as he settles down and pulls out Fighter's file from among a small stack he has been carrying all morning.

"That Fighter's file?" Red Scout tilts her head, trying to look cute, but she's Trooper writing away.

"It is," Trooper confirms as he begins detailing what happened, "Looks like a breakthrough too. A trigger event occurred, though it was interrupted when the puppy barked and nipped at her in response to her reactions."

"Oh?" Red Scout blinks, even as she taste tests her cooking, "That pup is so loyal to her. What happened?"

"She yanked his tail by accident," Trooper states as he writes in Fighter's file.

"That would do it," Blue Knight mutters as the young adult human male suddenly makes his appearance known, stepping into the mess hall with his right arm bandaged and in a sling and his use of a cane with his left hand as he walk-hops on his good leg to get into a seat, "Is what happened good for her?"

Acknowledging Blue Knight, a Steel-ranked Adventurer who had the misfortune to tangle with some of the Evil Sect's members smuggling kidnapped maidens to be sacrificed, Trooper continues writing even as he speaks.

"It is," Trooper makes a couple of quick side notes for reminders, "It is possible that she may had been tortured with a torch, something that happened to Sword Maiden if my sources are correct, or the Goblin Shaman had done so with its magic, therefore, she has a response to certain lighting patterns and the colors of them."

Finishing his report quickly, but efficiently, Trooper turns to Blue Knight, "How's the rash? Gone now?"

With a nod, the blue eyed white haired mail nods, "Yeah, thanks to that mixature you gave me. My arm and leg doesn't hurt as much and I think the bruising is gone from my ribs as they don't hurt anymore."

Two plates and bowls soon land before the pair as Trooper begins a brief check up of Blue Knight.

"Time to eat boys!" Red Scout smiles, "Better get it while it's hot and plentiful!"

 **XXXX**

 **Adventurers Guild**

 **East Town, Frontier**

 **Arrival Plus 3 years, 6 months, 11 days**

 **127th Day of Spring Synchronized Date**

 **1043 hours Synchronized Time**

 **Adventure World**

 **XXXX**

Trooper walks in through the front doors with a yawn and a thick binder full of health reports on the 48 wounded cases he had shoved on him, not counting Fighter, but including Blue Knight.

Coupled with already having fourteen Adventurers, including Red Scout and Priestess, call Fort Fantasy home for the time being, it was well over its limit to support.

Including himself, there were 63 people calling Fort Fantasy home. Six of the fourteen boarders had been working towards getting their own places. Two of them, both Steel ranked, have been planning to marry as both were up for promotion, one would remain on the rolls at the Guild and the other would retire to take care of the home and children. Which would only happen once they found they were with their first child.

The other four had found more permanent residency closer to town now that they had coin reserves to spend for their own homes.

Of the remaining eight, including Priestess, only Red Scout isn't a rookie. She's a Sapphire-ranked Adventurer like himself and is actually due for a review for consideration for promotion to Emerald. The remaining seven were all Porcelain-ranked, but only Priestess had less than three months time under her belt.

' _But with Goblin Slayer, she's already being considered for review,'_ Trooper thought as he walks over to Guild Girl, ' _That aside, I got 48 cases plus Fighter, which is taxing my resources.'_

"Good morning Trooper," Guild Girl greets as the EDF soldier approaches her, "How are you today?"

"Wishing for a Shirley Temple," he chuckles at her face as he hears a veteran in earshot by the Quest Board groan, "They still get annoyed when I say that in earshot?"

Removing the proverbial sour lemon from her mouth, Guild Girl responds with an exacerbated sigh, "I think Priestess hasn't caught on, yet, but honestly, can you please not talk like that. I don't know why either, but for some reason, some of the priests and priestesses get upset when you talk about your nation's drinks."

Raising an eyebrow beneath his helmet, "Soft drinks are non-alcoholic, easy to drink, and unless I'm offending a Deity of the Drink, I don't think they should be getting their underwear in a twist about it."

Guild Girl could only helplessly shrug.

"Anyways, that aside," Trooper pushes what amounted to nothing out of his mind, "Here are the latest medical reports from the 49 cases that got dumped on me, including Fighter," the stack makes a muted thunk when it lands on the reception desk, "Of those 49, twelve will be fit in about two week's time, one more at three weeks, and the rest with varying degrees of injuries over the falling three months thereafter and again, I voice that they _should_ be in proper Healing Temples, not in my overloaded, half built fort."

Guild Girl sighs to the side and shakes her head, "I've voiced the same and got the same results. Though we have an inspector from the main offices coming soon as well. So we should be able to get some of that straighten out. It would look bad in the Capital if we don't get them moved soon."

With a frustrated sigh, Trooper can only hope as he continues on, "Fighter has shown signs of recovery now."

"She has?!" Priestess suddenly glomps Trooper, "How is she!? Is she training again? Does she have-"

Goblin Slayer's armored glove covers the blond teen's mouth, "Not so fast Priestess. He said she only shows signs. She has yet to actually start recover."

The blond deflates at hearing Goblin Slayer's words.

"I'm afraid all that we found today was a trigger for her panic attacks," Trooper informs Guild Girl, but loud enough for Priestess and Goblin Slayer to hear, along with two of the other receptionists, "I'm going to speak with Goblin Slayer on several possibilities of Goblin Behavior, but it looks like we got lucky today and she was able to come out of it once an outside force applied a minor level of force."

"Minor level of force?" Guild Girl tilts her head, her pleated golden locks shifting with the movement.

"Her puppy nipped her when she accidentally grabbed his tail in her panic attack," Trooper informs Guild Girl, "Immediately, she returned to her senses. This is a bit of good news, but it will still take time. I just don't know how much."

"I see," the hallowed gold hair woman closes her eyes as she turns her head slightly to sigh before shaking it a bit and then opening her golden eyes once more, "We will have to table that for now," the woman takes the stack of files off the counter and places them on her section of the desk, "How go your preparations?"

"I only need to recruit a few more Adventurers and we will be ready for the expected month long mission," Trooper replies at once.

"Month long mission?" Priestess blinks in surprise.

"You haven't said anything?" Goblin Slayer points out, everyone sure he has a raised eyebrow behind his helmet.

Turning to face them and leaning easily on the reception counter, "Because you two have been out frequently lately. But I got a request from the military to look into some sites for the possibility of them deploying troops. I've got a team put together that will assist and confirm status. We should be gone a month, barring complications."

Nodding, "Take care then," Goblin Slayer acknowledges.

"Yes, please do!" Priestess bows a little, the cute and delicate looking girl will grow out of some day, Trooper amusingly notes.

"I will and thanks," Trooper answers easily enough, "Got to finish up my medical reports and then I leave tomorrow. Should be back sometime next month. I wouldn't worry too much. Scouts haven't reported much in the way of potential problems. Not even goblins. Hopefully it will be smooth sailing."

"Very well then," Goblin Slayer then turns to Guild Girl to inquire about goblin quests.

Priestess frowns at Goblin Slayer's lack of tact, but Trooper only pats her on the head before he turns to head over and recruit some more members. Really, all he needs is some Porcelains. They can get some field experience and training in while making for good pack mules and laborers for this mission.

Easy peasy.

He'll still double check the reports, but as far as he expects, no trouble whatsoever. He'd been personally around that way two months ago. The goblins he had found out that way were as good as dead. Between both him and Goblin Slayer that is.

 **XXXX**

A local week later sees Trooper hiding behind a tree before turning out just long enough to toss a throwing knife into a goblin sentry.

After checking to see if his silent kill had been seen, Trooper moves silently to the next tree.

Within range of his throw were three goblins and one more above them, well outside. That would be trouble. The goblins are really enjoying themselves, so he doesn't have time to dwell.

Moving like a wraith amongst the trees, Trooper closes the range. A rock skipping along sends the goblins to alert, but then they notice it was only a rock. The three on the ground start yelling at the one above them. That one yells back down at them.

As the four argue, Trooper hurls his rock from his sling.

The one up high takes a direct hit and falls off the old parapet.

The three below laugh, each believing one of the other two threw it. They laugh like that for a good amount of time. Then realize with dread, it wasn't one of them.

It's too late.

Trooper grabs one goblin and quickly twists his head violently to the side. The sound of breaking neck bones alerts the other two, but even before the dead member of the trio can fall, Trooper lashes out grabbing both.

With momentum on his side, he smashes the two goblins into the old walls of the fort. Both make muted sounds as they are dazed and confused by the impact. Their windpipes are then crushed when Trooper takes hold of their necks and slams them together.

A sixth goblin gets a throwing knife to his face for his troubles and falls to his death as another is snatched from the air and used to beat the eighth goblin to death.

The seventh goblin dies during the beating too and its corpsed chucked at a ninth and tenth goblins who panic, but then die as Trooper crosses the distance and cuts down both with his sword.

An eleventh goblin, hiding to either ambush or alert his fellow goblins, waits behind a piece of wall debris.

Instead, both of Trooper's boots crush him flat, with a muted cry being the last sound from the goblin.

Trooper quickly assails the ruined walls to the ramparts above. There, he finds a twelfth goblin coming to check on the other elven. Instead, as Trooper advances, the goblin finds himself face to foot with Trooper.

 **XXXX**

The surprised goblin is kicked down and bounces, the air in its small lungs having been forced out from the impact of the boot to its chest rob all sound from it.

As its mind whirls and its lungs try to inhale air again, it can only see the spots brought on by both the loss of air and twin impacts it felt.

But goblins like him are quick to recover if you let them. Gasping for air, the goblin begins to jump back to its feet and draw its knife. It will gut this intruder and alert the others at the same time.

But then he finds himself lifted up and looking into a slit visor helmet with an extended faceplate and horizontal pattern grill holes for breathing.

"Good," the Adventurer states and the goblin is left with stopped mental gears.

'What?' it thinks in its own language inside of its head.

Then it finds out as it finds itself being thrown out. The sudden free flight and the feel of weightlessness causes the goblin to blink in wonder. Before gravity kicks back in and it realizes its going to fall.

Right into a large boiling pot.

Screaming in panic the whole way, the goblin forgets about the Adventurer as it watches its death literally boiling in front of it as it falls in.

 **XXXX**

Trooper watches as all of the goblins stop what they're doing and pretty much enter a confused state.

His plan is risky as hell and likely to end in failure. Too much can go wrong. He has virtually no intelligence. Enemy troop strength, type, positioning. To top that off, he has to insure his forces are arrayed to prevent pursuit without being prematurally detected.

Then there is his force, which is heavy on the rooks, weak in heavy troops, and is likely outnumbered at least three to one if not more.

With a shrug, Trooper is just thankful that they probably thought the liquids that hit the ground were the now boiled to death goblin pissing uncontrollably as he fell to his death, screaming and getting all of their attention.

Thus leaving him undetected, in the middle of their horde, on his own, with no back up to commence a rescue operation he's making up as he goes.

Just another day in the office for the EDF.

 **XXXX**

They all had seen one of their number go flying right into the boiling pot they had been preparing for one of the female Adventurers they had just captured. Once they were done raping them, they were going to have even more fun killing them. Then they would cook them up and eat them.

Of course, they had to make sure to get a few more goblins out of them. To replace the ones that they had killed. But that is half the fun right there. And they had two humans, an elf, and a rhea.

While the rhea might be a bit slower, rhea are nearly as good as humans and elves for breeding with.

But now… There is this strange mess.

One of their own is now messing up the pot for the human that fought with her hands. Which will mess up them killing her, cooking her some of her entails, and then feeding it to her leader. The rest of her will be cooked for them to eat.

That would be after the fun of shooting the rhea with her own bow and arrows. Then they will burn the elf at a stake, which will be even more enjoyable, as this used to be an elf fortress!

But all of that is now to the side as they will have to dump the pot and get fresh water to.

One goblin speaks up about a strange smell from the piss that doesn't smell like piss covering it and a few others.

A torch then flies by and ignites the strange, black not piss.

 **XXXX**

Coupled with a couple of local grenades, the goblins are successfully thrown into confusion by Trooper. Also a couple of molotov cocktails help out too. The burning liquid adding to the confusion as the goblins begin to run around in circles as Trooper charges in, hammer in hand.

The first two goblins end up flying into a mess of flames and rolling over some gasoline that hadn't been lit yet.

They add to the confusion and carnage as goblins begin killing their burning comrades to keep them from lighting the whole fort on fire.

The scattered stacks of wood, timber, kindling sit in grass, some coming up to their waists. This also means that the old crates and wagon wheels filling the abandon fort are in danger of catching fire. Along with its structures and the roots of the massive trees it was built into its form.

The goblins even have oil, which there is a large supply still left over in the fort as well. If the flames reach that, they won't be able to control the fire. They'd have to evacuate.

And in this mess of confusion, Trooper slams goblins across the grounds, into the ground, or into the air.

Reaching the rhea first, Trooper kills the two goblins near her first. Another tries to jump him, but he dodges it and kills yet another. Then another jumps at him, only to catch an arrow in its head.

"Trooper!" it's Red Scout and two other Steel-ranked Adventurers.

"I told you to stay behind and guard the perimeter!" Trooper shouts back, "Top left!"

The dwarf spins out of the way and uses the momentum to bring his two axes down, splitting the limbs from the goblin that had tried to jump him.

The three hurry over to where Trooper is trying to tend to the downed rhea and fight off the goblins.

"There must be over a hundred of these bastards!" Trooper complains aloud, "This is way above Steel-rank!"

"Thank ye for the encouraging vote of confidence," blocking a stone and arrow with both of his axes, the dwarf though agrees, "Way too many 'ere. How wa'z this missed?"

"No idea," Red Scout states as she takes hold of the badly wounded rhea, "Can she be moved?"

Trooper turns and slams his hammer down the legs of two different goblins, causing them to howl in pain before he bats them away, "GO!" he shouts as he charges a group, intent on holding them off.

A stone ricochets off his helmet, robbing him of his forward movement, but he retains enough sense to step back and take a defensive stance.

"Explains that!" the dwarf yells as a stone slides off his helmet as well.

"We need to save the others!" the human woman shouts as she swing her halberd around and kills three goblins and literally disarms a fourth.

A downward cut a moment later and the screaming goblin falls two ways in two more pieces.

"The elf!" Trooper shouts as they begin fighting to her and an explosion rocks the fort as an old oil-filled pot reaches its maximum and the old, destabilized oil detonates with fury and debris, "Let's move! Move!"

As the three race for the elf, the goblins grab her and begin to actually lift her up and carry her away, rather than dragging.

Because she had been left laying on her side, the three Adventurers hadn't seen it. Her stomach somewhat bulged. The terrifying thought of what was happening.

"You gotta be kidding me!?" the dwarf shouts as the three try to catch, only to be stopped by another explosion that threw out a tongue of flame.

That wasn't oil.

"SHAMAN!" and the dwarf responds with one of his axes burying itself into the Goblin Shaman's chest and nearly taking the diminutive monster's head off in the process.

"There's another!" the polearm user shouts and the three make their way to her.

Several goblins attempt to kill the defenseless woman. They don't get a chance. The three Adventurers are on them with a roar. Axe, Polearm, and Hammer crashing into the goblins and slaying them where they stood.

This woman is badly wounded. She has been especially beaten up and slight cuts made to points of her torso. They bleed slowly, but hurt. A lot.

"One minute!" Trooper informs the other two even as he breaks out his medical kits and potions. It's a race against time, something they don't even have a second of. But if they don't, she dies.

Trooper's skill can be almost supernatural when it comes to addressing wounds.

"That's a new record!" Trooper states as he pulls the woman up, into his arms and turns to the polearm user, "Take her and go!"

The woman doesn't argue. She takes the wounded Adventurer and tosses her over her shoulder in a Fireman's Carry and then takes off running. By luck, the the polearm user is taller by a full two inches. So there is plenty of clearance for her to fly like the proverbial bat out of the fiery hell they are in.

Even as another explosion takes place and dumps a source of water, putting out some of the flames, but also knocking oil into a goblin hole and an ember ignites it, causing it to catch fire and burn two goblins hidden inside and trying to escape.

The flames catch something else underground on fire and pretty soon, back near the siege line, smoke can be seen coming from the connecting hole.

It's blocked off a moment later by a large rock and sealed in place, causing choking smoke to start to fill the fort.

The dwarf recovers his thrown axe as the pair make their way after the remaining two captives. It's not a battle as it had been. Many goblins are trying to put out flames in their nest and others are trying to stop the choking smoke.

Several, though, man the parapets. In their hands are bows, arrows, stones, and slings. They prepare to ran death on the remaining two Adventurers. Instead, they only get to be shot from there by a hail of arrows and stones from the siege line.

A spark of Thunder magic also raises into one of the ramparts and utterly blows away a chunk of stone and two goblins. The real fight is now on. The goblins end up having to turn their attention to the now closer, but still protected siege line that is firing on them.

"Idiots!" Trooper shouts as he and his dwarven ally trap the goblins with the two women, "But the right call under these conditions!"

"Aye," the dwarf growls as the two Adventurers advance with weapons in hand and ready.

Then the elf begins screaming. It's a sound of pain the likes of which they've never heard before. She's held forcibly down by the goblins as she screams and cries out, her words mere gibberish worse than a goblin.

Before the two males' eyes, a horrifying sight makes itself known.

The birth of a goblin.

Neither had seen such a thing before.

Now they do. Wishing fervently they weren't. The sight displaces their stomachs, but they maintain their constitutions.

They can puke later.

The goblin infant actually crawls, forcing its way out of the elf's womanhood. Sliding out as close to a mockery of giving natural birth as it can get. Blood helps to mark the goblin child's birth. As it exits the elf woman's body, lacking an umbilical cord even to connect with the woman, she shudders and passes back out, her body twitching from convulsions.

Then, as though to mock all other races, the goblin wobbles slightly on its tiny feet. Trying to stand, but then falling down. It begins to cry from there. Like a normal infant.

A Goblin Shaman picks up the small infant, cradling the small infant in a startling gentle way for such a cruel creature, and turns and smiles darkly at the human and dwarf.

Trooper's answer is a throwing knife to its face, taking an eye out and causing it to drop the Goblin Child as both Adventurers charge with furious battle cries full of indignant righteousness that terrifies all the present goblins.

Trooper and the dwarf reach the two women, with the dwarf finishing off the Goblin Shaman.

The goblins are either killed or scattered.

Trooper, with great revulsion, ends the Goblin Infant's life.

He needs to puke. Right now. But he holds it in. The women are counting on him.

Fast with his medical treatment of them, he preps first the elf.

"Take her and go!" Trooper yells to the dwarf, only to see him take three goblin arrows and a knife, "No."

But the dwarf roars in defiance!

His armored foot comes down, crushing the goblin that dared to get in close and stab him. His twin axes finish off three more goblins and he blocks several arrows. All the while, backing up with slow ease as he pulls the arrows, tipped with goblin poison, from his body and uses them to stab three more goblins to death.

"Aye," the fatally wounded dwarf laughs darkly with blood spilling from his mouth, "How did ye all like that?"

Another goblin tries his luck. It is bad luck. Thus already a short life, became a lot shorter. As did the goblin. By a head. His life ending in a split moment as its body was also split in half.

"I got the long eared lass!" putting one of his axes away, "I'll see ye back in the lines," gently taking the wounded and violated elf over his shoulders and making sure she was laying across both of them, the dwarf roars a battle cry and charges right through the goblins, stomping one too stupid to get out of his way.

With a sigh, Trooper shakes his head, "I amend my count to somewhere north of 200 or 250," he recognizes the woman, "Dammit Noble Knight! I told you to wear a damn helmet!"

Picking her up after treating her and stowing his hammer away, Trooper is rammed from behind as he goes to draw his sword.

Both Trooper and Noble Knight hit the ground together. The air is knocked out of Trooper as he pitifully groans. The goblins that knocked him down, stand atop him, ready to plunge their stolen knives and daggers into his back.

They never get the chance as another explosion goes off with the burning goblin hole.

Trooper seizes the moment and grabs ahold of Noble Knight's discarded sword.

With a swift sweep, the goblins are cut down. Finally, Trooper picks up Noble Fighter and carries her Fireman's Carry over his shoulder out of the chaotic fort. Another bolt of magic eliminates a group on a parapet trying to slam spears into both Trooper and Noble Knight.

The siege is now fully engaged as Trooper dashes to escape, squashing the had of one goblin and using the brain matter to slide over the old stone and almost slipping on spilt blood.

Despite a spirited attack to kill him, Trooper makes it to the gates and slips out. The gates jammed open by Red Scout when she first entered. The goblins had been unable to close them. Now they break, preventing them from ever being closed again.

Trooper doesn't care as he mad dashes back to the line. He reaches it unharmed and with Noble Knight safe in his arms. A great cheer goes up as the two safely enter the woods and soon are amongst fellow Adventurers with Emerald and Ruby-ranked members keeping the line formed and the goblins trapped in their damaged fort.

Trooper lays Noble Knight down next to her party members and the dying dwarf.

"Aye," the dwarf smiles, "A good way to go. That it is. A good way to go, aye."

The dwarf's eyes lose the light of life. A shuddering breath. His hands go limp.

Removing his Sapphire tag, Trooper replaces the late dwarf's Steel tag with it.

"No greater calling, no greater purpose," Trooper says with tears in his eyes, "Thank you my friend. I shall lift a cup in victory to your name and say to your ancestors, what a friend and hero you were and how proud I am to have known you. Now journey on the greatest adventure yet. Explore far beyond. We will meet you on that winding road someday."

Placing himself against the safety of a tree, Trooper rubs at his face.

All of this didn't have to happen.

Yet something happened.

What?

A soft hand on his shoulder. Red Scout kneels next to Trooper as healers fuss over the four rescued Adventurers. Trooper raises a hand to cover hers.

"Are you well?" Red Scout asks, showing her genuine worry.

With a shuddering breath, "Tired. So very, very tired. It was like that in the war too. Far too often."

Red Scout squeezes his shoulder and Trooper smiles lightly as he gives a soft squeeze to her hand in response, "I'll recover. But we can't let it be in vain."

With that, Trooper, with Red Scout's help, gets back to his feet, just in time to see a Porcelain Adventurer fall to an arrow, but two goblins are felled in response.

"Medic!" Trooper shouts as two other Porcelains pull their wounded ally out of the line of fire, "Hold the line everyone! We'll make the goblins pay! We got them trapped. Keep yourselves fortified and in cover. Check your fire. We have only so many arrows, Light Scout!"

"Here!" the elf scout drops from up high and lands easily enough, "Go for reinforcements, right?"

"Correct," Trooper confirms, "Inform the Guild of what's happening here and see if the army won't move to assist."

With a nod, Light Scout is off and disappears into the woods.

Turning his full attention to commanding the sudden siege, "Watch out for goblin holes and traps! Children can be surprisingly inventive. So expect the same from a goblin and you will survive!"

 **XXXX**

Light Scout had only been moving for two days. Crossing a distance that had previously taken three to do. Yet by chance he ran into hope.

Goblin Slayer and Priestess had been heading in the direction of the siege with Spearman and Witch acting as messengers for the Guild.

Goblin Slayer and Priestess had already dealt with a small rabble of three goblins. Strays from the looks of things. They had searched for their nest and had not found evidence of one. Which was very good and so they had moved on, running into Spearman and Witch on a message delivery run to Trooper for the army.

Catching his breath and being healed by Priestess, Light Scout made his report to the four.

"In that old fortress?" Spearman couldn't believe it. "Since when did that happen?"

"I don't know," Light Scout responds, "Noble Knight led a party in to rescue some girls and women taken from a nearby village. They ran into trouble and were caught instead. Trooper went in alone to get them, but the goblins were too many."

"How many is too many?" Spearman wonders aloud, knowing full well that Trooper had the stuff to back up his claims.

"I lost track after counting over 50 killed," Light scout reports, "Coupled with at least a dozen outright by Trooper and maybe another two dozen inside, I'd wager well over a couple hundred of them, maybe 300 hundred, which makes no sense, they _never_ kidnapped that many females!"

"How many higher ranked goblins were there?" Goblin Slayer inquires next.

"I don't know, I think I saw around five shamans," counting in his head, he can't be sure, "I know at least three were present and I think the dwarf said they had run into another two inside."

"Multiple groups acting as one," Goblin Slayer states, "There is something wrong with that. Continue on and tell the Guild that the goblins are more organized, which means a truly powerful goblin may be in the area and the Town Watch should double its guard and some Adventurers should go and protect Fort Fantasy, to prevent its capture while Trooper is away and many wounded Adventurers lay vulnerable."

"Understood," Light Scout takes a drink of water from his leather canteen before heading off again.

He'll need to make a day long journey much faster.

"Let's go," Goblin Slayer states as the four move out to hurriedly reinforce Trooper's thin line of Adventurers.

 **XXXX**

Trooper lands on his feet after sliding down an old trunk. Red Scout and two rangers land with him. The three women showing their displeasure at being covered in goblin blood.

But still.

They had some success and they didn't alert the goblins either.

The goblins realized the Adventurers lacked the strength to assault them. Though, despite the thin line, the Adventurers by contrast, had a clear kill zone. The open area from the fort to the woods was too wide, made even wider through (de)constructive measures by the Adventurers, for the goblins. With magic users in reserve, the goblins had no means to rush safely.

The four made good their escape and ran on the cover of the dying light of the day. No goblin would be able to spot them with the sun in their eyes. And being nocturnal, that meant it is worse for goblins to look into the sun's light.

The pickets watch as the four return, their number only increased by one, though.

"She's the only survivor," Trooper lays the woman of some 20 years down for healers to tend to as he and his party regroup with the other high ranking members, "The rest died before we could get to them. The only reason she survived, is likely that when an explosion had destroyed a store of water, it rushed close to her to retrieve and drink some if her muddy hands are any indication."

"She's been the only one alive for at least four days," Red Scout adds and the two rangers nod in agreement, "The others expired, from the looks, directly under torture. She didn't and we found her, clinging to life."

"They're still shrugging off the effect of their failed breakout attack," Trooper adds, "With the three we rescued then, that's four survivors. The villagers are likely to be thankful, but the question still remains. How did 200-odd goblins go unnoticed for so long?"

"No offense to our rangers and scouts," an Emerald-ranked dwarf runs his fingers through his bread, "But obviously, _some_ rangers and scouts didn't do jack squat of what they were supposed to do."

"No shit," one of the two blood covered rangers responds, holding out her cloak as she tried to ring some blood from it.

"That won't help," Trooper stops her, "Wait until this is over, I learned a couple of tricks from Goblin Slayer."

"You better," the woman growls and she isn't alone in giving Trooper the stink eye.

Feeling slightly nervous, "Right," Trooper is the butt end of several jokes at that moment.

A young swordsman suddenly approaches the group. He is one that had been posted to their rear. He's excited, but doing his best to hold it in, maintaining his composure.

"Well," the dwarf from before chuckles at the excited youth, "Out with it already. Don't keep us in suspense."

"Goblin Slayer!" the boy blurts out, "He's here with that priestess party member of his and Spearman and Witch too!"

"Three Silver-ranked Adventurers!" one of the few Ruby-ranked cheers excitedly.

The four soon enter the small meeting area and the relief is visible. Immediately, four others vacate their places to let the new arrivals sit down and to rest their feet, no matter how brief.

"My," Witch begins, "Thanks," she ends.

"Our pleasure," the dwarf smiles, "You three are a sight for sore eyes," he continues next, "This is a right mess, but with Trooper leading us, we've rescued four prisoners and saved a party that went in previously to do the same."

Trooper took over immediately at the end of that statement, "Our losses have been light, only four dead since we started the siege and one dead during the first rescue," Trooper brings the four up to speed, "We've found and destroyed and sealed several goblin holes, but suspect more. We broke up and destroyed a breakout attempt already, where we rescued three of the four captives that were used as human shields. The last was rescued only a short time ago when I lead a team of four into the fort to look for more prisoners. All others were dead, this one got lucky."

"How do you intend to carry out your siege?" Spearman inquires.

"With no survivors left and the bodies inaccessible," Trooper begins with a solemn look, "I intend to end the siege by burning the fortress tonight before their reinforcements arrive and break my siege."

"As I suspected," Goblin Slayer crosses both arms over his chest, "That would explain the upsurge in goblin attacks in recent months."

Trooper nods in agreement, "By my best guess, they've been using strays to establish smaller nests that grow into larger groupings. Then they retrieve a number of the nest's members and send them to other locations to do the same or to form the backbone of a likely goblin army."

"A Goblin Lord," Goblin Slayer answers back, "A Platinum-level goblin."

That sets off shock throughout the meeting. The idea of a goblin being that powerful is just ludicrous, but Witch had heard of something like that. So had Spearman. All of the older Adventurers had.

"It's more of a being equal in terms of rank, not power," Trooper mollifies the meeting, "Which would mean a number of Goblin Champions. Those can fight even Silver-ranked Adventurers on superior terms. Last I heard, it took almost ten Silver-ranked Adventurers to kill just one Goblin Champion."

"Six Silver-ranked Adventurers actually," Goblin Slayer corrects Trooper, "Mostly because they were three Scouts, a single Poleax, and two Archers."

"Yeah, not favorable odds," Trooper agrees, even with numbers, that would be suicide if they weren't careful, "But I'm confident that Heavy Swordsman and Lady Knight could bag a couple or more each on their own."

That relaxes everyone. Two of their strongest members. That would definitely make things better for them.

"I will destroy this fortress immediately," Goblin Slayer states as he raises up.

Trooper interjects here, "You'll have support, since they've been on alert."

"Speaking of that place," Spearman begins as Witch pulls out the letter from the army.

"This," she hands it over, "Is… for you."

Taking it with a thankful nod, "My thanks," Trooper opens it and reads the letter before letting out an angry shout and throwing it to the ground, "Oh for pete's _sake!_ _**NOW**_ they inform me of a possible goblin incursion in the area after discussing it for several days!"

" _What!?"_ Spearman isn't the only one who rose from his seat in anger, "How long have they _known?!"_

Picking the letter back up and finishing reading the details, "Since _before_ we left East Town!"

And again he tosses the letter away in disgust.

Priestess quickly picks it up and reads it as well. It's full of what was said by Trooper. Though there was mention of several issues before hand. Something had happened to a couple of their own scouts.

"Um, this says they lost a few scouts," Priestess interjects into the heated discussion.

"I saw that," Trooper states with crossed arms, "Lost before we were sent out and if we hadn't been careful, we'd have been added to those losses."

"So no warning whatsoever," Spearman growls, "What do those fools think we are? Some kind of bait for traps?"

"Who knows at this point," Trooper grouses with annoyance, "Now our only concern, at this time, should be putting a match to that fortress and torching it to the ground and killing every last surviving goblin that climbs out of a secret hole in the ground."

There is a general agreement there.

 **XXXX**

The goblin on watch, kept a very careful watch.

Their attempt to break out the weak Adventurer line had ended in disaster. The three meat sacks of women they were using as shields were also stolen from them. The ones that tried to leave had been knocked out with Stupor magic that left them and then a number killed. Then the Adventurers retreated back to their lines and drew back even further.

They were about equal in numbers now.

But the Adventurers are also on guard. So they now have to wait to be rescued by their Goblin Lord. He'll be here soon. He was do to return and provide them with fresh supplies and then rest while they finally destroyed the nearby human village.

A flash of white caught the goblin's eyes.

Boring in on it, he could see a priestess, a young, delicate, juicy morsel!

Already he was getting hard just thinking about it. Capturing that one would make up for his letting those first four in. Of course, it wasn't his fault when the next four entered. So he could easily get first dibs on her and make her scream and beg and cry and scream, beg, and cry some more!

Oh yes, oh yes, _oh YES!_

He runs back and tells the others. They are caught by surprise. That Adventurers would get in so close again. Several run up to see for themselves if the watch is correct.

Even as he jumps up and down and points, something suddenly slams into the side of his head, near where his jaw meets his skull.

He's confused initially. Reaching up, he feels the shaft of the arrow. Protruding from his head.

A moment later, he keels over dead.

The remaining goblins panic as they come under concentrated fire. The Adventurers had clearly decided to attack. A bombardment of arrows rains down onto them. Many are wounded and killed as panic sets in.

One goblin hears glass breaking and turns his head.

Then gulps as his eyes goes wide at seeing oil and gasoline running down the bark of the old wood from broken bottles attached to arrows.

It only takes an ember, a spark, or a direct hit by another arrow, those ones on fire, to start multiple massive blazes that rapidly grows out of control.

 **XXXX**

"Light those ugly bastards up people!" Trooper shouts as he releases another arrow, tipped with oil in a bottle, "Tonight is Overdone Goblin!"

" _ **YEAH!"**_ a great cheer went up from the Adventurers.

As everyone watches, the old elven fortress is turned into a large bonfire. The flames of which can be seen in the village as they wait, under a small guard's protection, for news from the battle taking place near their homes and fields. The smoke travels, high into the sky as the fortress burns.

"Mama?" a young girl turns to her mother, "Why are you crying?"

Dropping to her knees and taking her young daughter into her arms, the woman replies.

"Because we're safe now."

The Adventurers on guard detail raise their weapons in cheer. The fortress must be completely engulfed by now. They are victorious!

 **XXXX**

The fortress rocks from explosions as goblins attempt to flee douse the flames, but nothing is working.

Fires are raging out of control. Burning everything they find. Leftover oil and gasoline from Trooper's infiltration and the general lack of sanitation among the goblins, have left the place even more of a tinderbox. A few good flames and the whole place lit up well. Because their funeral pyre.

"Old elven fortresses," Goblin Slayer admires the moment, "Burn nicely."

"Alright!"

"Yeah!"

"It's better this way."

"Look at it burn!"

Goblin Slayer ignores the cheering Adventurers as he turns to Priestess.

"If they weren't rescued by Trooper, then there was no one left to rescue."

"Yes," she responds back, "I know."

Before he can say anything, Goblin Slayer head jerks to the side with a loud _**clung!**_ Trooper recognizes the sound easily enough.

"Take cover, enemy counter barrage!"

The previously cheering Adventurers scatter and dive for cover. A few stones land here and there along with a couple of arrows. The attempts to hit the Adventurers as they dive for safety. Return fire is made to silence the counterattack.

Priestess rushes to Goblin Slayer's side, "Are you alright!?" she looks to his head.

"Calm down," Goblin Slayer steps forward and takes aim with his bow, "He's got a sling, but can't muster much force at this distance."

Before the goblin can strike again, Goblin Slayer hits him squarely with an arrow.

The counterstrike is defeated with arrows and stones from the Adventurers.

"Let's go," Goblin Slayer starts walking forward, stopping for a movement to half turn to Priestess, "That new Miracle you recieved?" he explains, "We'll need it."

Standing up taller, "Right," Priestess follows Goblin Slayer.

 **XXXX**

As the goblins abandon their firefighting efforts and head for the only exit, they find the Adventurers gathered, waiting.

This will be a fight. The goblins know that. They don't care. As long as they take a few with them then and a couple of them escape. That is all that matters right now.

So they charge.

Right into a trap.

 **XXXX**

" _O Earth Mother_

 _Abounding in Mercy"_

 **XXXX**

The goblins draw and ready their weapons for the last dash. Through the priestess in front of them and then through the Adventurers behind them. If this is their end, so will it be for many Adventurers.

 **XXXX**

" _By the Power of the Land_

 _Grant Safety to we who are weak"_

 **XXXX**

They reach the broken gate and pick up their pace. Death to the Adventurers who defy them. Death to all who are beneath them. Death to these damn fools!

But it was not to be.

 **XXXX**

" _PROTECTION!"_

Priestess shouts as a translucent golden-tan barrier erects in the entry space of the gates.

Her new Miracle, is the Defensive Miracle, Protection. It stops all of the enemy's attacks and rushes. It is like hitting a solid wall.

But for allies of users of Protection, they can fight back. Through the Miracle. Against their enemy.

Yet, for this moment, that is unneeded.

A few goblins get by. They turn to see the bright light behind them. Trapping their fellow goblins. Then they turn back.

As Goblin Slayer charges in and kills them all.

"I'm sorry. I was slow with my Miracle," Priestess apologizes.

Picking up one weapon from one of the dead goblins, Goblin Slayer tests it before speaking, "Never mind."

As they turn back, everyone watches the goblins pound against the Protection barrier. Flames and smoke overcoming them. They never had strong lungs to begin with. Those that don't die right away to fatal levels of smoke inhalation, die by being burnt to death.

"It worked," Goblin Slayer notes, but also doesn't miss the melancholy expression on Priestess' face or in her posture.

"Let's move out people," Trooper orders as it is clear that the barrier will hold and by the time it collapses, it will be a wall of fire on the other side by then. "We got more goblins to find and kill to make sure none escape this place at all."

"Tell me when you're done praying," Goblin Slayer informs Priestess, "I'll join the search for survivors," he informs her, "Stay alert, though. Some may have escaped."

"He's right missy," Trooper replies, "There are many ways they could have still escaped. Such as jumping from towers, finding an abandoned escape route. We found multiple tunnels already dug. So there are quite a few ways they could get out actually."

"Then you both thought that far ahead?" Priestess askes, wondering why they thought so far ahead.

"Of course," Goblin Slayer responds, "Imagination is a powerful weapon…"

 **XXXX**

Noble Knight stares blankly at the column of smoke and fire. It is so massive as though to darken the lighting sky.

 **XXXX**

Several goblins are ambushed at various places trying to escape and are ruthlessly killed by the Adventurers who find them. Even the rookie Porcelains are more than enough to overpower and kill them. The power of shock, terror, and surprise is no longer on the goblins' side.

It is against them.

 **XXXX**

"And those that fail to use it, die first."

 **XXXX**

After massacring another knot of goblins, Goblin Slayer walks back towards Priestess.

The dark skies above have start to release rain. To the Adventurers on the ground, it is a gift of life. With cupped hands, they gather as much as they can to drink fresh water. To quench their thirst after their short siege.

Others let it wash away the events from their bodies. To be rid of the smell of battle. The scent of death from the fiery end of the old fortress.

Trooper only sits back and let's it fall on his helmet and plate sections of his armor. The sound comforting to him. Reminding of home as a child. Rain on the the tin roof his father always loved to hear the rain hit.

That soothing sound that lulls his tired body to sleep, as search parties still fan out, but find nothing more.

"Acting my rank can be..." Goblin Slayer struggles for a moment, "difficult," he admits to Priestess.

The young teen… Takes that as his tacit permission to give prayer even to the goblins that have died. To all that have died in this short siege. This deadly battle.

 **XXXX**

 **Fort Fantasy**

 **Living Quarters**

 **Arrival Plus 3 years, 6 months, 28 days**

 **144th Day of Spring Synchronized Date**

 **1921 hours Synchronized Time**

 **Adventure World**

Fighter looks up as Trooper and Red Scout with the others return who had left. They are back remarkably early. They've been gone only two weeks. She can only suspect, that this had something to do with the guards that had arrived to defend Fort Fantasy.

"How are you guys feeling?" the guard captain pushes some drinks forward to the group. As well as something light to eat.

"Half miserable in general, half relieved to be home," Red Scout replies without the usual excitement in her voice.

"What happened?" Blue Knight asks as he moves just enough to let a tired elf ranger just plop onto the bench next to him and then grabs her when she sways, letting her rest against him as she nuzzles up close, just to feel calm.

"Our first target was occupied by something around 215 or so goblins," Trooper informs everyone and Fighter nearly launches herself upwards, if not for a healer from one of the Temples putting her hands on the girl's shoulders.

"Around 215?" the guard captain manages to work his mouth. "How?"

"Good question," Trooper supplies in response, "An investigation is ongoing now. But we got them all. All 215 plus something of them. Just don't ask how a mere 50 Adventurers bottled so many up on our own."

"We got lucky," the elf ranger murmurs before falling fast asleep in Blue Knight's arms.

"We rescued an Adventurer Party that had gone in to rescue the maiden kidnapped from a local village," Red Scout sighs sadly, "They fell for a simple trap and then were almost wiped out if not for our timely arrival. They still had to be rescued."

"They were captured and to my dying day, I will never forget seeing a Goblin Infant be born," Trooper shudders before taking a deep, calming breath, "The four included Noble Knight as their leader and she, again, ignored my advice to put a damn helmet on. She'll never be an Adventurer again, they messed up her mind and the concussion from being hit by a sling thrown stone had left her with permanent brain damage."

Pouring himself a drink and taking a sip of the hot cider that had been pushed to Trooper and the others when they returned, Trooper thought it over some more, "We might get lucky with the Monk and Ranger recovering fully and returning, but Elf Wizard is being medically discharged from the Guild. She'll barely ever walk normally again, but her body is too badly damaged to ever survive the rigors of our line of work again."

"Damn," Blue Knight strokes the sleeping elf ranger in his arms.

"Several dead on top of that, more than that wounded," Trooper takes another sip as he remembers the smile on the late dwarf's face, "My recommendation to promote one of the fallen to Sapphire-rank, posthumously, has been approved. His part of the earnings we got, are being sent to his next of kin, along with a letter notification of his promotion and a short letter from me praising his loyalty, courage, and devout sense to help others."

The others nods, grateful that the Guild can recognize and honor courage.

"Another chapter in our lives now is done and the page shall turn to the next," Trooper mutters aloud as he thinks it over, "Big party for our victory tomorrow. I'm going to hold up that drink for our victorious dead."

"So say we all," Red Scout responds.

"So say we all," everyone agrees, even the sleeping elf ranger.

 **XXXX**

" _The Goblin King has lost his head!_

 _To a critical hit most dire!_

 _Thus the king's repugnant plan..._

 _Come to a most fitting end..._

 _And the Princess reaches out._

 _To her Rescuer, her Friend..._

 _But he is Goblin Slayer!_

 _In no place does he abide…_

 _...But sworn to wander,_

 _Shall not another by his side."_

"Tonight, this is as far as the story goes, of the Frontier's hero…" the bard doffs his hat and sweeps it before himself, "Goblin Slayer!"

Later on, the bard is counting the coin he got. He is quite lucky to have heard of that Goblin Slayer. A powerful Adventurer that only hunted Goblins. Though it is said he sometimes does have another by his side.

A faithful friend and a soldier from another land. Simply called Trooper. The man is being said that he commanded a siege on an abandoned fortress taken over by goblins. That thanks to his leadership and understanding, that eight maidens had been rescued, including a failed Adventurer Party, and the fortress reduced to ashes.

Though even then, it is said that Goblin Slayer and two Silver-ranked reinforcements had arrived to put an end to the fortress full of goblins once and for all.

' _People do love a tale of an unconquerable savior…!'_ the bard thinks to himself as he examines each coin, 'And for money like this, so do I!' he thinks excitedly, ' _Perhaps a tale of Trooper would be good. A hero misplaced from his own world by an evil enemy's failed Teleportation magic, that become an Adventurer, because he needs the means to fight evil? That should work.'_

"You..." a young, commanding woman's voice suddenly catches his attention and he turns to see a young woman dressed in green and white traveling clothes and simple leather and cloth armor with a brown hooded cloak cover her features, "The Adventurer you sang of… is he real?"

"But of course miss," the bard states with a happy look on his face, ' _Not I ever met him,'_ pointing to the west, "I hear he lives in a town on the Western Border, two to three days from here, apparently with an apprentice he took some time ago, though I only learned so much myself only a short while ago and did not have the time to change my lyrics I'm afraid," he chuckles, just in case, he was glad he ran into those twin Battle Healers, "They've a large Guild too- Try asking there, I'm certain you'll also find his apprentice at the very least."

"So he's in a town because he took an apprentice," the hooded young woman states as she absorbs the information.

"Yes, I learned recently there was also a battle with a large group of goblins too and both were of note in which a mere _fifty_ Adventurers overpowered a large, fortified horde of some _two-hundred_ goblins on their own, including many who were only recently became Adventurers, inside of an abandoned fortress, protecting all the lands around it from the evil within it."

Removing her hood, "Well that's both convenient and good news," the man can't help but blush as he sees the lovely, young looking high elf girl before him, though he suddenly worries when her companions step forward, "Orcbolg, the Goblin Slayer," she says as though tasting the words on her tongue, "And his apprentice too."

 **XXXX**

 **A/N:**

 **Damn. Just damn.**

 **When I get going, I get GO-ING!**

 **Now this is fun stuff right here. Simple, easy. Fun as hell.**

 **I can skirt by with the barest of details with this. But where is the fun in that? Fortunately this provides a great amount of straight forward material.**

 **But as we can see, Fort Fantasy, a fort in name more than anything else. Poor Trooper gets dumped with a lot by a bunch of pencil pushers in the Guild. Yet he sees things through to the end.**

 **We now have an expansion on the the old Elven Fortress. A major battle, all things considered. A titanic win for the Adventurers, though it came at a cost.**

 **With only 50 members, they suffered a high casualties before emerging victorious.**

 **While seven dead and double that in wounded might not sound like much, remember, there were only 50 of them. That means they took almost 50% losses in that fight. Which is why they kept calling their siege line just a line. Since there were so few of them to fight, they couldn't even form a proper entrapment and had to fight with everything they had to keep the goblins bottled up.**

 **The goblins, though, didn't have a clue as to the numbers of the Adventurers. Those that were also part, since the original expedition to check the old fortress and other places of interest was expected to last some time, it had well over 70 members. The remaining 20 were split between healers, who did not fight, and the rest stationed to defend the nearby village. Plus one departed to get reinforcements.**

 **So the numbers game was not in the Adventurers' favor, but because the goblins couldn't get a clear idea of those mere 50, they didn't exit to rush them, especially as they took severe losses early on.**

 **Battles aren't always about strength. LIke Goblin Slayer said, "Imagination is a powerful weapon."**

 **Not only for how to kill an enemy, but to convince an enemy he is R-Triple-D or Really Deep Doo-Doo, when he might actually hold the advantage, all of the advantages.**

 **We get Fighter's return, some throw away characters who fought and some died, and others who get named, but won't play much of a role.**

 **But, at the end, we get High Elf Archer's entry.**

 **What will happen next?**

 **Because Trooper is there.**

 **But not as a superman that by sheer appearance, all goes well. Noble Knight is medically out. Same with Elf Wizard. Rhea Ranger and Human Monk might fully recover.**

 **We also saw one die to save them. Then others get wounded and reports about dead who fought.**

 **Trooper won't be an invincible superman. He got jumped in the end, rescuing Noble Knight. But he was able to recover, because he knew the dangers and took precautions.**

 **It should also be noted, contrary to popular belief, the Failed Female Rescue Party, was not a bunch of green rookies.**

 **Noble Knight, herself, was at least Steel-ranked. The others in her party might have been Steel or Obsidian-ranked. So it is not just Porcelain-ranked Adventurers being wiped out. But others, who don't know the dangers and take no precautions.**

 **And it doesn't need to be a Goblin Lord or a Goblin Paladin leading either.**

 **Even without a Goblin Shaman, goblins are inherently dangerous.**

 **Goblin Slayer took the time to learn their ins and outs and thus build an idea of what they do and how they go about it. Which is why when their behavioral patterns shift, he knows something is very much amiss. This leads him to being called Goblin Slayer for a reason.**

 **He doesn't just kill them.**

 **He knows them.**

 **As Sun Tzu said:**

' **Know yourself and know your enemy and you shall never fear battle.**

 **Know yourself, but not your enemy and you shall have defeat for every victory.**

 **Know neither yourself nor your enemy and it is the sound before defeat.'**

 **-Art of War**


End file.
